US tech firm Microsoft is to make a significant claim on the hottest technology in the industry by staking $10 billion on startup OpenAI, according to several internet news reports.
OpenAI is the parent company behind AI services provider ChatGPT, the much-touted and acclaimed language model optimiser.
Microsoft already put big money into OpenAI in 2019, investing $1 billion with the small San Francisco-based firm and reportedly adding another $2 billion over the following two years.
As for the rest of the reported investment share: 49% has been split between other investors, while OpenAI parent took 2%.
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Aside from Microsoft's input, non-profit OpenAI has raised $1B in seed funding over six rounds. Its latest funding was introduced on Jan 12, 2023. OpenAI has reportedly raised a massive $29 billion valuation in funds and permitted early investors to cash out. Other noted investors for OpenAI are Bedrock Capital and Adam Juegos.
The Importance of Being First with AI
The importance of the stake for Microsoft cannot be overstated, as the repercussions on search engines like Google and voice assistants like Siri and Alexa look set to be revolutionised. It also means it could catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon regarding tech-led commerce.
AI advances would set things up for Microsoft with its waiting range of products and services, integrated platforms like Teams and Viva, and back-end developer and admin tools like Power Platform.
Excitement in the UC and Tech Industries
Most of the C-suite executives interviewed for UC Today's upcoming UC Summit have cited AI, particularly ChatGPT, as an exciting breakthrough to watch, with many looking to develop and learn how the new tech will affect the UC and collaboration space.
There is already a race for the AI technology as many organisations and companies (and nations!) look to be the first mover and thus have a major influence over the next versions of the internet. The Redmond-based firm has already introduced AI into many of its apps and services and used its DALL-E 2 model for Microsoft Designer, as Office Today reported in November, set to be generally available in 2023 and likely to revolutionise the way graphic artists execute their work.
A conversational chatbot would most likely be integrated into classic apps like Word, Excel and Outlook. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about its AI investment and development at Ignite in October and stated:
