Microsoft Lists OpenAI as Competitor Despite $13 Billion Investment

The official dynamic between Microsoft and OpenAI has gotten more complex.

In its most recent annual report, Microsoft listed the artificial intelligence startup as a rival on Tuesday. For many years, mega-cap peers Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta have been on this list.

Microsoft and OpenAI have a long-standing agreement in which Microsoft acts as OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider and uses its AI models in consumer and commercial products. Microsoft has reportedly invested $13 billion in OpenAI, making it the company’s largest backer.

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Yet, it appears from the current casting that they are vying for the same audience.

Microsoft included OpenAI, the company behind the ChatGPT chatbot, as a rival in the filing for AI services and search and news advertising. A search engine prototype named SearchGPT was unveiled by OpenAI last week.

Some businesses decide to pay OpenAI to use its models. Others use the Azure OpenAI Service from Microsoft. Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot can be accessed via the Bing search engine and Windows operating systems as an alternative to ChatGPT.

Nothing in the two businesses’ relationship has altered, according to an OpenAI representative. The two companies formed their cooperation with the knowledge that they would compete. Microsoft is still an excellent partner for OpenAI, the spokesman claimed.

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Still, this year has been full of drama.

It has been revealed that before OpenAI’s board fired CEO Sam Altman in November, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was not informed. Microsoft was granted a non-voting board position by OpenAI, following Altman’s prompt reinstatement. Earlier last month, Microsoft gave up the role.

Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind, an AI research firm that predates OpenAI and was acquired by Google in 2014, was hired by Nadella in March. Many Inflection personnel joined Suleyman, who had co-founded and led the firm Inflection AI when he was elected CEO of a new division dubbed Microsoft AI.

Also Read: OpenAI’s SearchGPT: AI-Powered Search Engine with Advanced Summarization Features

Nadella and Altman are still close.

“One of my favorite things about Sam is that he calls me every day and says, ‘I need more, I need more, I need more,'” Nadella recently stated this in an interview with The New York Times.