Reid Hoffman, billionaire and co-founder of the LinkedIn platform, has decided not to seek re-election to Microsoft’s board of directors. According to an official filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this decision will take effect at the 2026 annual shareholder meeting. The Redmond-based conglomerate has made it clear that the move is not due to any disagreements over policy or the company’s current operations.
The decision closes an important chapter in the software giant’s history. Hoffman had been sitting on the company’s board since 2017, a direct consequence of the acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion – at the time the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. Under the corporate wing, the professional platform has grown to more than 1.3 billion members, proving the business success of that merger.
In addition to overseeing LinkedIn’s growth, Hoffman played a crucial, if often behind-the-scenes, role as a strategic bridge between Redmond and the dynamic Silicon Valley ecosystem. As an experienced partner in the Greylock Partners fund – known for its early support of brands such as Airbnb and Aurora, which is developing autonomous driving – he had a unique sense of market trends. This was particularly evident in the area of artificial intelligence. Hoffman has sat on the board of OpenAI in the past, and co-founded Inflection AI in 2022. The latter startup’s team was, incidentally, later largely absorbed by Microsoft, cementing the company’s position as a leader in the new technology wave.
The main reason for his current departure is the billionaire’s desire to return to direct innovation creation, the so-called ‘founder mode’. In an official announcement, Hoffman declared his intention to focus fully on his new project, Manas AI. This is a deep tech and biopharma startup that aims to use advanced artificial intelligence models to dramatically accelerate the discovery of new cancer drugs.
For Microsoft, Hoffman’s departure marks the symbolic end of an era, but the timing seems perfectly calculated. The corporation has already managed to build a direct, billion-dollar relationship with the artificial intelligence market and no longer needs liaisons in Silicon Valley. For the investor himself, in turn, it is a natural evolution – swapping a stable seat on the corporate board for a risky but potentially groundbreaking front in the fight against the diseases of civilisation.
