In the wake of the announcement of the Stargate project which must build an infrastructure of twenty data centers dedicated to AI to ensure the world domination of the inventor of ChatGPT, Microsoft has issued a press release which sounds like an update update on its relationship with OpenAI.
Communication is important as Oracle, one of its main competitors, is a direct investor in the Stargate project and its president and founder Larry Ellison was present alongside Donald Trump who has since announced it the White House. An omnipresence which seems not to have been viewed favorably on the Redmond side.
To the tune of “OpenAI is me”, Microsoft lists all the prerogatives that it has and that it intends to keep well with respect to its “partner” of which it is according to consistent sources, the largest shareholder with 49% of the capital. The opportunity also to confirm some information on its weight in the construction and development of the inventor of ChatGPT since 2019, the year of the start of their collaboration.
Ownership of rights to OpenAI intellectual property
First, Microsoft confirms that it owns “the rights to the OpenAI intellectual property (including the model and infrastructure) for use in our products like Copilot.” The other crucial point concerns the API which allows all OpenAI customers to develop their applications and constitutes its main revenue line. “The OpenAI API is exclusive to Azure, runs on Azure, and is also available through the Azure OpenAI service. This agreement means customers benefit from access to leading models across Microsoft platforms and directly from OpenAI.” insists the press release.
-On a more financial side, Microsoft reveals that it has entered into “two-way revenue sharing agreements, ensuring that both companies benefit from increased use of new and existing models.” and confirms that it intends to remain a major investor in the inventor of chatGPT on which its entire AI offering around Copilot is based.
The icing on the cake is that Microsoft insists on the power it retains over the development of future products. “OpenAI recently made a significant new commitment to Azure which will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training. This new agreement also includes changes to exclusivity on new capabilities, moving to a model where Microsoft has a right of first refusal (ROFR).
Relegated to a supporting role by Oracle in the Stargate project, Microsoft does not intend to remain on the sidelines in a project presented as the spearhead of American domination of AI. And to conclude as a call to order: “We thank OpenAI for its continued partnership and look forward to what is to come.”
