Tensions with OpenAI underscore Microsoft’s need to ensure its own AI future

Microsoft partnership with OpenAI has become increasingly strained by the AI startup’s need for more funding and computing power, Microsoft’s recruitment of leaders from OpenAI rival Inflection AI, and questions over the Redmond company’s equity stake in any future version of OpenAI as a for-profit company.

That’s the collective gist of a pair of stories that broke overnight from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, respectively, citing anonymous people familiar with the situation.

Microsoft isn’t commenting on the stories. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman put gave the New York Times an optimistic take on the shared future of the companies. But the clear takeaway is that Microsoft is doing what it can to chart its own course in AI regardless of its relationship with OpenAI over the long term.

GeekWire explored some of the underlying issues this week in our deep dive on Microsoft’s history in AI, the opening chapter in our Microsoft @ 50 series.

For that piece, we asked Microsoft if there was a risk that the company was effectively outsourcing long-term AI research to OpenAI. In short, the company said no — citing its long history and ongoing work at the forefront of AI research and applications, with specific examples in a variety areas.

But the question became all the more relevant when the news emerged this week that one of Microsoft’s key AI researchers, Sebastien Bubeck, is joining OpenAI. 

The situation may also cast a new light on OpenAI’s relatively new satellite office in Bellevue, Wash., just down the road from Microsoft’s headquarters. Yes, the office gives OpenAI a convenient location near its partner, but it also puts the startup closer to many of Microsoft’s current employees should they decide to jump ship.

Sam Altman has called OpenAI’s Microsoft partnership “the best bromance in tech,” as the New York Times notes, but these latest developments suggest their relationship status may be sliding more into frenemy territory.

For more, read the NYT article about the fraying partnership between the companies, and the WSJ piece focused on the future of Microsoft’s equity stake in OpenAI.