Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella faced pushback even from the company’s cofounder and original CEO Bill Gates, he recalled during an interview on tech-focused YouTube channel TPBN. “Remember this was a nonprofit, and I think Bill [Gates] even said, ‘Yeah, you’re going to burn this billion dollars,'” Nadella said.

Since 2019, Microsoft and OpenAI have shared a vision to advance artificial intelligence responsibly and make its benefits broadly accessible. What began as an investment in a research organization has grown into one of the most successful partnerships in our industry.

Microsoft and OpenAI unveil a deal extending IP rights, adding independent AGI verification, and giving both sides more freedom while maintaining Azure ties.

In the new agreement, Microsoft gets a 27% stake in OpenAI's for-profit business, the OpenAI Group PBC, worth around $135 billion.

Microsoft and OpenAI announced the long-awaited details of their new partnership agreement Tuesday morning — with concessions on both sides that keep the companies aligned but not in lockstep as they move into their next phases of AI development.

The nonprofit arm, now called the OpenAI Foundation, will have a $130 billion stake in the for-profit enterprise.

Microsoft lifted a funding restriction on OpenAI that became a point of conflict after ChatGPT took off required more computing power.

Under the new pact, Microsoft will get a 27% ownership stake in OpenAI worth about $135 billion, the companies said in a statement Tuesday. In addition, Microsoft will have access to the artificial intelligence startup’s technology until 2032, including models that achieved the benchmark of AI general intelligence.

However, Microsoft revealed a major drop in profit due to what it termed was an “equity method investment” in OpenAI Group PBC, resulting in a 41-cents-per-share hit to its earnings and a $3.1 billion drop in its net income. Even so, the company’s bottom line was still healthy at $27.7 billion, up from $24.67 billion in the year-ago quarter.