OpenAI and Microsoft Relationship Fraught with Potential Disruptions

The future isn't great for this partnership, here's why:

Hey Everyone,

Microsoft has invested over $13 Billion to date in OpenAI and they could invest much more in the next $10+ future round we are expecting. However while early access to GPT-4 has enabled Microsoft to make customers feel like they are leaders in A.I. and Copilot adoption, the future of this arrangement might not be so bright.

In recent months, Microsoft has been pivoting to use Meta’s Llama-2 and open-source technology increasingly to protect itself from its dependency on OpenAI and GPT-4. Microsoft Research also are quite capable and in an era of small language models, Microsoft has Phi-2 which is surprisingly competitive.

However antitrust investigations might easily spoil the future relationship of Microsoft with OpenAI.

U.S. regulators are reportedly clamoring over who can investigate OpenAI and Microsoft’s relationship over antitrust concerns, according to Politico on Friday. I personally have no doubt many other Governments feel the same way. Microsoft made an outrageously sketchy deal with OpenAI to protect themselves from this kind of thing.

Microsoft made its first investment in OpenAI in 2019, when the latter changed its structure from non-profit to capped-profit. But while both have used each other, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.