What We Know Is That Microsoft Invested Billions in OpenAI Fearing It Would Lose Ground to Google

Microsoft has reportedly contributed $10 billion to OpenAI as part of its massive AI effort, which has cost billions of dollars to finance. Its approach and the rationale for its significant contributions to the AI field were never clear to us. However, recent revelations provide us with a clear picture of its intentions and show how concerned Microsoft was about Google’s AI initiatives and how, in the absence of these expenditures, it may fall behind in the AI race.

According to this story, on June 12, 2019, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, his CTO Kevin Scott, and Bill Gates exchanged a confidential email titled Thoughts on OpenAI. The letter highlights Microsoft’s concern that its machine learning strategy is moving too slowly.

At first, Scott was excited to see how rapidly and where AI will go, but he soon began to have concerns about the work being done by Google DeepMind and OpenAI. The Microsoft CTO was pleased by the demo movies that demonstrated the value and capabilities of Google DeepMind AlphaGo.

A few years ago, Google enjoyed a distinct edge over Microsoft thanks to its reinvigorated emphasis on AI. But by 2022, you can see that things are starting to turn in Satya Nadella’s and the company’s favor. Its growth has been accelerated by its rumored investment in OpenAI, which gives its products—Bing, Edge, and Copilot—a minor advantage against Google’s Gemini AI, which is already integrated into Gmail, Docs, Android, and other products.

Regulators have conducted investigations into the OpenAI alliance, claiming that Microsoft was managing the operations of the Sam Altman-run business. Who formed the OpenAI alliance and how is still a mystery to us.

Although Bill Gates may have had a part in the transaction, Nadella’s biggest obstacle would have been persuading Microsoft and its stockholders to approve an investment of more than $10 billion in the artificial intelligence startup. As a result, the business no longer worries about Google’s intentions to overtake the competition and now has a lot more to offer.