It’s no secret that companies that master artificial intelligence (AI) will have a leading role in the future. Microsoft knows this and is willing to take out its wallet so as not to be left out of what could be a revolution with scope in different industries.
The Redmond giant, according to Semafor, is in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. It is the company behind the DALL·E image generator and the ChatGPT conversational chatbot, powered by the famous GPT-3.5 model.
An investment that does not go unnoticed
Microsoft and OpenAI have not commented on the matter, but according to the aforementioned medium, the agreement contemplates a benefit sharing whereby the company led by Satya Nadella would take 75% of OpenAI’s profits until its investment is recovered.
Upon completion of this first stage, which could span several years, Microsoft would gain a 49% stake in the AI company. The other investors will receive the other 49% and the parent company OpenAI would keep the remaining 2%.
At the moment it is not clear if the agreement has materialized, but information from the documents sent to investors indicates that the closing of the agreement it was scheduled for the end of 2022. If completed, OpenAI could be valued at more than $29 billion.
It should be noted that an investment of 10,000 million dollars, like that of Microsoft, does not go unnoticed. For comparison, Windows managers spent $8.5 billion on Skype in 2011 ($11.2 billion today) and $7.5 billion on GitHub in 2018 ($9.9 billion in 2022).
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (left); Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (right).
But this is not the first time that Microsoft has bet on OpenAI. in 2019 invested 1 billion dollars in an agreement that had three key points. On the one hand, developing new supercomputing technologies in the cloud for artificial intelligence.
On the other hand, becoming an exclusive provider of cloud services with Microsoft Azure, so that OpenAI developments can be tested, trained and run on their servers. And lastly, being the “preferred partner” to market OpenAI’s AI products.
If the investment comes true, Microsoft could become a very important player in the field of artificial intelligence thanks to the technologies developed by OpenAI. In fact, the company, according to The Information, is considering incorporating the power of GPT-3.5 into some of its flagship programs such as Word y Outlook.
The bet would even go much further. Language models like those that power the ChatGPT chatbot could be the thing that allows Bing to win over users in the search market, a sector that is largely dominated by Google. Microsoft would also be willing to take that important step.
Images: OpenAI | Microsoft
In Xataka: I have played a role-playing game with ChatGPT and a movie worthy of an Oscar has been made
