Reid Hoffman Leaves Microsoft Board to Pursue 'Founder Mode' at AI Drug Discovery Startup Manus
核心洞察
Reid Hoffman is stepping down from Microsoft (搜索)'s board after nearly a decade to focus full attention on Manus (搜索), his AI-powered drug discovery startup.
Manus (搜索) has raised over $50 million across two seed rounds, with backing from General Catalyst (搜索), and is led by Pulitzer Prize-winning oncologist Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee.
The startup applies artificial intelligence to discover novel compounds for aggressive cancers, with an initial focus on breast cancer (搜索), prostate cancer (搜索), and lymphoma (搜索).
Reid Hoffman is stepping down from Microsoft (搜索)'s board of directors after nearly a decade, according to a regulatory filing disclosed Thursday. The LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist said he intends to go "founder mode" with Manus (搜索), his AI-powered drug discovery startup, signaling a deeper commitment to applying artificial intelligence toward treating cancer.
Hoffman joined Microsoft (搜索)'s board in 2016 following the company's $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. His tenure coincided with some of the most consequential AI investments in the technology giant's history, including Microsoft's initial $1 billion investment into OpenAI (搜索) in 2019—a wager that fundamentally reshaped the company's strategic direction.
"One of the things I realized over the last month was that, we're seeing such progress with Manus (搜索). I need to get back to founder mode," Hoffman told Microsoft (搜索) CEO Satya Nadella during a conversation on his "Possible" podcast.
Manus: AI-Driven Cancer Drug Discovery
Manus (搜索), co-founded by Hoffman and Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, launched in early 2025 with a specific mission: applying artificial intelligence to accelerate drug discovery for aggressive cancers. The startup has raised over $50 million across two seed rounds, with backing from General Catalyst (搜索). An initial funding round in February 2025 brought in approximately $24.6 million.
Dr. Mukherjee, who serves as CEO, is a practicing oncologist, biologist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Emperor of All Maladies," one of the most widely read works on cancer biology in the past two decades. Hoffman holds the title of co-founder and chairman.
The company's initial therapeutic focus targets breast cancer (搜索), prostate cancer (搜索), and lymphoma (搜索)—three cancer types representing significant areas of unmet medical need.
"Move 37" AI and the Chemistry Frontier
Hoffman has articulated Manus (搜索)'s technological vision through the concept of "Move 37" AI—a term borrowed from AlphaGo's famous, unexpected move against world champion Lee Sedol that transcended conventional human strategy. Hoffman believes this paradigm of AI-driven creativity applies directly to chemistry, particularly in discovering novel compounds to combat cancer.
The approach suggests an ambition to move beyond incremental improvements in drug discovery toward genuinely novel molecular entities that human chemists might not intuitively design.
A Pattern of Strategic Departures
Hoffman's exit from Microsoft (搜索)'s board is not his first high-profile resignation. In March 2023, he stepped down from OpenAI (搜索)'s board, citing the need to prevent conflicts of interest with his broader investments in AI companies. Those conflicts intensified when Microsoft struck a $650 million acqui-hire deal with Inflection AI (搜索), the AI startup Hoffman co-founded—a transaction that brought Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman into Microsoft to lead a division focused on superintelligence.
Hoffman announced he will not seek re-election to the Microsoft (搜索) board at the company's 2026 annual shareholder meeting, clearing the path for his full commitment to Manus (搜索) and its mission at the intersection of artificial intelligence and oncology.