Hey Microsoft, What’s The Deal?

THE NEW YORK TIMES recently reported that the MICROSOFT’s partnership with OPENAI is showing strain due to financial and operational challenges. Last FALL, OPENAI CEO SAM ALTMAN asked MICROSOFT’s CEO SATYA NADELLA, for more billions in funding after a previous $13 billion investment.

NADELLA initially considered it but became cautious after ALTMAN was briefly removed from his position in NOVEMBER, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

Over the following months, OPENAI continued to go after more funding and computing power for its A.I. development, but MICROSOFT resisted. Financial pressures, operational challenges at OPENAI, and conflicts between employees of both companies have affected the five-year partnership, according to multiple sources to the TIMES.

OPENAI CEO SAM ALTMAN said, “We’re deeply grateful for our partnership with MICROSOFT; the early big bet they took on us and the vast compute resources they’ve provided have been essential to our research breakthroughs, benefiting both companies greatly.”

“We are excited and committed to pursuing our shared vision and achieving even greater things together far into the future.”

Despite some adjustments, tensions remain. A clause in their contract allows OPENAI to regain control if those tensions spill over to artificial general intelligence (AGI), which could open the door to renegotiation.