Microsoft confirms third phase of "multibillion dollar investment" in OpenAI

After reports of being in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, Microsoft has now confirmed that it is extending its partnership with the ChatGPT creator into the third phase. The overall size of the new investment is unclear, but the software giant calls it “a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment.”

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

Microsoft’s agreement with OpenAI started with its $1 billion investment in 2019, followed by the exclusive license deal to the technology of GPT-3 in 2020. Now, the Redmond company said it would further aid OpenAI in its independent AI research by investing more in the development and deployment of specialized supercomputing systems. Another benefit of the investment includes Azure being OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, which powers OpenAI workloads across research, products, and API services.

As usual and in past reports, Microsoft said the partnership will allow both companies to “commercialize the resulting advanced AI technologies.” For the software titan, it means deploying OpenAI’s models across its consumer and enterprise products, confirming earlier rumors this month.

Earlier in January, Microsoft’s plan to integrate ChatGPT into Bing was divulged in hopes of better arming it in competing with Google. Later, additional reports said the plan would extend to Microsoft’s Office apps, including Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It was followed by a confirmation from the company that it would soon introduce ChatGPT to its Azure OpenAI Service, which is now generally available.

Aside from the products mentioned above, the benefits of OpenAI’s technology might soon manifest in other Microsoft products and services, including its security software and Teams. The Redmond company added that it would also “introduce new categories of digital experiences built on OpenAI’s technology.”