Microsoft just made a huge investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Here’s why

Microsoft has been working with OpenAI since 2019, before OpenAI became a massive hit with its AI services such as ChatGPT and DALL-E but now Microsoft has said it will be extending that partnership with a multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment. 

The investment will continue to fund the AI research company’s research and specifically, develop AI that is “increasingly safe, useful and powerful,” according to OpenAI.

Microsoft said it will deploy OpenAI’s models across its consumer and enterprise products and “introduce new categories of digital experiences built on OpenAI’s technology”.

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Neither companies have disclosed the value of the investment, but sources have revealed that the investment will total $10 billion over multiple years, according to Bloomberg. This investment follows the initial investment Microsoft made in 2019 worth $1 billion, and in $2 billion in the years after. 

Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service will be OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, powering all OpenAI workloads across research, products and API services.

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Just last week, Microsoft announced the availability of its Azure OpenAI Service, allowing businesses to take advantage of Open AI’s models with added enterprise benefits. The press release onMonday highlighted that announcement and emphasized the company’s intent to make their services more broadly available. 

“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,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

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The timing of the investment just after Microsoft announced a huge round of layoffs, with 10,000 employees losing their jobs, as the company attempted to align cost with revenue and customer demands, according to Nadella.