Microsoft is considering a huge top up of its investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, in what would mark its largest investment in a startup to date.
According to Bloomberg sources, the company is in talks to inject up to A$14.5 billion into the company – following its A$1.45 billion investment in the business in 2019.
Microsoft is currently looking into building OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into its Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook programs, and will integrate it into its Bing searches as early in March.
ChatGPT is a chatbot that “interacts in a conversational way”. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT can “answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”
According to a report in Semafor, Microsoft would receive 75 per cent of OpenAI’s profits until it recoups the investment, in which point it will own 49 per cent of the company.
Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Windows and Surface chief, may have hinted at the investment last week at CES, when he declared from the stage that “AI is going to reinvent how you do everything on Windows.”
