Microsoft Deepens Partnership with OpenAI

Microsoft decided to deepen the partnership with OpenAI, the maker of the popular AI offering ChatGPT. The software giant made a multibillion-dollar investment in the company that represents their biggest bet yet on the technology.

The investment in OpenAI follows previous backing for the company in 2019 when it invested $1 billion, and another undisclosed funding move in 2021, Microsoft said in a blog. While the amount was not revealed officially, various news outlets reported Microsoft will invest around $10 billion into OpenAI, significantly ramping up its interest in the AI specialist following a three-year partnership.

Microsoft will make its investment over multiple years, deploying OpenAI’s models across its consumer and enterprise products, which includes its suite of Office software and the Bing search engine. As a result of deeper ties with OpenAI, Microsoft said it will also increase investment in the development and deployment of specialized supercomputing systems to accelerate AI-independent research. Microsoft’s Azure will now become OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, powering all of its workloads across research, products, and API services.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said it initially partnered with OpenAI because of a shared ambition to responsibility advance AI and democratize the technology. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and tool chain with Azure to build and run their applications.“

Interest in OpenAI skyrocketed in recent months after chatbot ChatGPT became an internet sensation following its launch in November 2022, attracting around 1 million users in its first week. The platform is considered to be at the forefront of generative AI, due to its ability to create high-quality content from simple text prompts.