Microsoft (MS) and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, who have led the artificial intelligence (AI) boom through a partnership for years, are shifting into a competitive relationship.
On the 1st (local time), MS added OpenAI to its list of competitors in its latest updated annual report. MS's existing list of competitors includes big tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. OpenAI was identified as a competitor in MS's AI services and search and news advertising sectors.
This suggests a change in the relationship between MS and OpenAI, which has been so close that it has drawn the attention of major national competition authorities. MS has been the largest investor in OpenAI, pouring $13 billion into the company since 2019. MS provides OpenAI's AI models through its cloud, and OpenAI also uses MS's cloud platform, Azure. When Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, was ousted from the board last year, the key figure who led his return was Satya Nadella, MS CEO.
Notably, MS's addition of OpenAI to its competitor list came after OpenAI unveiled its own search engine, SearchGPT, on the 25th of last month, drawing attention. SearchGPT is currently being tested in a prototype version with some users and is regarded as being created to compete against Google, which dominates 90% of the global search market. Although MS's market share is only around 5%, since it operates the Bing search engine, there is analysis that MS may perceive OpenAI's SearchGPT as a threat.
However, both sides emphasized that they still maintain a close relationship. OpenAI stated, "The relationship between the two companies has not changed. The partnership was formed with mutual understanding that they would compete with each other," and "MS is still a good partner of OpenAI." In a recent interview with The New York Times (NYT), CEO Nadella cited one reason for his friendly stance toward CEO Altman as "the fact that he calls me every day to say he needs something."
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