Last Wednesday, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple's Phil Schiller has been assigned to sit on the Board of OpenAI which could cause tension with Microsoft, OpenAI's largest Investor." Today we're learning that Microsoft is leaving OpenAI's board.

The Elec reports this morning that "MS is stepping down from its position as an observer at OpenAI. It has been just a week since Apple’s joining the observer became a fait accompli. On the surface, it is said that this is because OpenAI has become self-sufficient, but in reality, it is being evaluated as an expression of discomfort towards Apple. Apple has not yet dispatched an observer, but after MS’s withdrawal, Apple’s plan to participate as an observer could also be scrapped.

Microsoft's decision to withdraw from the board as an observer is analyzed to have been influenced by the decision of Apple's Philip Schiller joining as a new observer.

Citing a source familiar with OpenAI's business, Axios reported that "OpenAI has decided to no longer have an observer on its board after Microsoft stepped down from its observer status." That all but says that the OpenAI board won't be welcoming Phil Schiller as an observer any time soon. And we're to believe that OpenAI's board decision wasn't influenced by Microsoft?

Bloomberg surmises that the reason for Microsoft's decision to drop out is because "Microsoft was still under examination over the observer seat on the board from British competition regulators, and faces a potential antitrust probe in the United States."