Global technology giant Microsoft Corp has come out in support of its strategic partnership with OpenAI, despite the artificial intelligence (AI) research organisation‘s participation in the new US$500 billion (A$801.629 billion) Stargate program.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he was happy with and felt very good about the partnership under which Microsoft has invested $11 billion in OpenAI since 2019.
OpenAi, which uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to power much of its computational needs, last week formed a joint venture with SoftBank (9984.T) and Oracle (ORCL.N) to build data centres in the United States.
On the same day Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) said the Stargate announcement was complementary to what the two companies had been working on together since 2019 and the key elements of their partnership remained in place until 2030.
On a call to discuss Microsoft’s second quarter earnings, Nadella was asked by an analyst if Microsoft would “take more of a backseat” in funding OpenAI's future capital expenditure needs.
He said OpenAI had committed “in a big way” to Azure and “their success is our success” because of the commercial arrangements already in place.
“So, we remain very happy with the partnership with OpenAI,” Nadella said on the webcast.
“So, I feel very good about the investment we are making, and it's fungible, and it just allows us to scale more long-term business.”
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