Sam Altman sought Microsoft funding and planned for-profit OpenAI subsidiary
Technology
When Elon Musk stepped away from OpenAI, the team had to rethink its future.
CEO Sam Altman reached out to Microsoft's Satya Nadella in 2018, looking for funding to build powerful new artificial intelligence systems.
To make it happen, OpenAI planned to create a for-profit subsidiary, so it could get the resources needed for their ambitious goals and keep developing super capable A.I. computers.
Microsoft invested $1B in OpenAI 2019
Microsoft invested $1 billion in 2019, giving OpenAI access to Azure's computing muscle and sparking huge growth.
This partnership led to multi-billion-dollar deals and let Microsoft weave OpenAI's tech into Bing and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Thanks to this move, OpenAI became a major force in artificial intelligence.