Microsoft is investing even more in OpenAI, with a multi-billion dollar contract spanning several years.
Microsoft is again investing in OpenAI as part of an expansion of its partnership. The tech giant has signed a new “multi-billion dollar”investment that will enable wider use of OpenAI technologies as well as better server-side support. Neither company has gone into specifics, but Microsoft says “new categories of digital experience”for both consumers and professionals should be expected. The Azure OpenAI service will play an important role.
Microsoft invests even more in OpenAI
This strengthened alliance will also allow Microsoft to increase its investment in supercomputers that accelerate OpenAI research. Azure will remain the cloud provider of OpenAI products, research, and services. The exact amount of this financial contribution was not disclosed, but a Bloomberg source says the Redmond-based firm is investing $10 billion over “several years.”
Microsoft first invested in OpenAI in 2021 and then returned to it in 2021. The New York Times elaborates that the giant has “quietly”invested an additional $2 billion since its initial investment. The two companies have strengthened their ties from the very beginning of cooperation. In addition to the Azure service, Microsoft has released OpenAI-based features, including natural language programming and the DALL-E 2 graphic design tool. OpenAI uses the Microsoft infrastructure to train its most popular systems, including DALL-E 2 and its ChatGPT chatbot. ChatGPT is also coming to Azure soon.
Multi-billion dollar multi-year contract
No mention of certain developments driven by certain rumors, such as the integration of ChatGPT into Bing. However, this extension could give Microsoft a serious edge over the competition. Google sees ChatGPT as a threat to its search business, and is currently reportedly hard at work on a search chatbot as well as other AI products, despite some reluctance to fully dive into the technology for fear of drifting around copyright.. Even if this expanded partnership with OpenAI doesn’t improve Bing, Microsoft could win by forcing competitors like Google to react quickly and decisively.