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Recently touting a revolution in artificial intelligence (AI),
Microsoft is building on a bet it made on OpenAI nearly four
years ago, when it dedicated $1 billion for the startup
co-founded by Elon Musk and investor Sam Altman.
It has since built a supercomputer to power OpenAI's technology,
among other forms of support.
Microsoft in a blog post has now announced "the third phase" of
its partnership "through a multiyear, multibillion dollar
investment" including additional supercomputer development and
cloud-computing support for OpenAI.
Both companies will be able to commercialize the AI tech that
results, the blog post said.
A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment on the terms of the
latest investment, which some media outlets earlier reported
would be $10 billion.
Microsoft is committing even more resources to keep the two
companies at the forefront of artificial intelligence via
so-called generative AI, technology that can learn from data how
to create virtually any type of content simply from a text
prompt.
OpenAI's ChatGPT, which produces prose or poetry on command, is
the prime example that last year gained widespread attention in
Silicon Valley.
Microsoft last week said it aimed to imbue such AI into all its
products, as OpenAI continues to pursue the creation of
human-like intelligence for machines.
Microsoft has started adding OpenAI's tech to its search engine
Bing, which for the first time in years is being discussed as a
potential rival to Google, the industry leader.
The widely anticipated investment shows how Microsoft is locked
in competition with Google, the inventor of key AI research that
is planning its own unveil for this spring, a person familiar
with the matter previously told Reuters.
Microsoft's bet comes days after it and Alphabet each announced
layoffs of 10,000 or more workers. Redmond, Washington-based
Microsoft warned of a recession and growing scrutiny of digital
spend by customers in its layoff announcement.
(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California;
Additional reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by
Krishna Chandra Eluri, Kirsten Donovan and Jan Harvey)
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