Microsoft Invests Billions in AI

Microsoft announced yesterday it is expanding its partnership with OpenAI, the start-up behind the viral ChatGPT chatbot (see overview), with a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment. Specific financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but reports say Microsoft is expected to invest $10B, in addition to the $3B it has already invested since 2019.

The investment will allow both companies to commercialize advanced artificial intelligence technologies and allow Microsoft to pursue a potential edge against competitor Google for the future of internet search. Microsoft was previously reported to be launching a ChatGPT-powered version of Bing in its bid to rival Google's Knowledge Graph (see 101), which helps produce instant answers to Google users' questions.

Microsoft plans to continue to incorporate OpenAI's models across its products, which include Microsoft-owned GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Designer, while OpenAI will continue to exclusively use Microsoft's Azure cloud platform as it improves and scales existing technologies, including text generator GPT, image generator DALL-E, and text-to-code generator Codex.