OpenAI and Microsoft are rewriting the terms of their multibillion-dollar partnership in a high-stakes negotiation designed to allow the ChatGPT maker to launch a future IPO, while protecting the software giant’s access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence models.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest backer, is a key holdout to the $260bn start-up’s plans to undergo a corporate restructuring that moves the group further away from its roots as a non-profit with a mission to develop AI to “benefit humanity”.
A critical issue in the deliberations is how much equity in the restructured group Microsoft will receive in exchange for the more than $13bn it has invested in OpenAI to date.