According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Openai and Microsoft may have reached an inflection point in their relationship.
The report, citing an anonymous source, says Openai executives believe Microsoft is publicly accusing it of anti-competitive behaviour through its partnership. Openai executives also pondered whether they would seek a federal regulatory review of their contracts with Microsoft.
Openai is trying to loosen its grip on Microsoft’s intellectual property and computing resources, but startups also need Tech Giant’s approval to complete the for-profit transformation.
The companies are dealing with the $3 billion acquisition of Openai, an AI coding startup Windsurf. Openai does not want Microsoft to acquire Windsurf’s intellectual property (which can enhance the cloud provider’s own AI coding tool, Github Copilot).
Microsoft was once a major accelerator of Openai’s growth, but corporate relationships are strained. Over the past few months, Openai reportedly tried to reduce its dependency on Microsoft for its cloud services.