Microsoft's OpenAI Conundrum

and pay attention to Satya's comments about jagged intelligence

Three separate events last week served to give us a whole new level of insight into the fractious relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI. First, there was the signing of the long awaited updated partnership agreement between the two companies, details from the OpenAI blog on the topic here.

Second, there was the very surprising (and first) reveal about just how much their OpenAI investment is now costing Microsoft on a quarterly basis, something we learned from the latter’s earnings report and which you can read about in the call transcript here and from the Register here.

Thirdly, there was the remarkable meltdown by Sam Altman, on the BG2 podcast when he was asked the question that’s on everybody’s mind, namely, just how is OpenAI going to pay for all of the compute they keep signing deals to purchase, details here. If you’re short on time, Sam kicks off at 12:36 into the video.

There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s dig in…