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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash. on July 15, 2019. (Photography by Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures for Microsoft)
Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion bid for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI could have significant implications for Microsoft, as the ChatGPT maker’s biggest investor and key commercial partner.
But if one believes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s take, that Musk’s primary goal is to slow down a competitor, the situation shows the benefit of the recent loosening of ties between Microsoft and OpenAI.
The best outcome for Microsoft would be to use this moment to double-down on its own homegrown AI initiatives, while making sure it can still benefit from — but not depend on — OpenAI’s technologies.
Even with more than $13 billion invested in OpenAI so far, Microsoft is in a decent position to avoid the distraction. It helps that the company isn’t on the OpenAI nonprofit board, not even as an observer, due to the scrutiny that followed the prior drama involving Altman’s temporary ouster as CEO.
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Microsoft did get pulled into Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI last year, but Satya Nadella and team can leave that to the company’s lawyers for the time being, focusing on their own AI strategy.
In the meantime, OpenAI is looking to the likes of Softbank and Oracle to enable and fund its future growth, further lowering the implications of the Musk bid for Microsoft. While there’s long-term risk in other investors getting involved, Microsoft still has the right of first refusal for OpenAI’s future cloud requirements even after the recent rejiggering of their contract.
“I try to just wake up and think about how we’re going to make our technology better,” Altman said in an interview with Bloomberg News, doing his best to brush aside Musk’s bid as a sideshow.
No doubt that sentiment is echoing through the halls of Redmond this morning.
