OpenAI's $100 billion MS pact could blur its 'mission' further

The AI company's humanitarian orientation looks set to weaken

- PARMY OLSON

Months of protracted negotiations between OpenAI and Microsoft have finally led to... an agreement about an agreement that will help the AI upstart carve a path towards greater independence.

"We are actively working to finalize contractual terms," OpenAI said last week, referring to a sweeping plan to restructure its powerful nonprofit arm. Remember the one that fired CEO Sam Altman back in November 2023 and nearly gave Microsoft executives a collective heart attack? It's being given an equity stake worth over $100 billion that will redraw the company's future.

OpenAI has spent the better part of two years seeking greater freedom from both Microsoft and the stiff founding principles that allowed its governing board to oust its CEO. Now, a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with its largest shareholder points to a future where Microsoft keeps privileged access to OpenAI's technology, but OpenAI can also court new investors and expand deals with other cloud service providers—not just Microsoft.

Microsoft, for its part, likely had more leverage than OpenAI during talks. Over the last few months, it seems to have gone out of its way to signal that it wasn't so reliant on OpenAI by releasing its own proprietary AI models under MAI-1 in August and buying technology from OpenAI's arch rival Anthropic.