The "next phase" of the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership will be stronger than ever before, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said.
Mr Altman, on Wednesday, shared a selfie on X with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, writing, "The next phase of our partnership is gonna be much better than anyone is ready for!!" Mr Nadella responded, saying he is "looking forward to all that's ahead!"
The two tech giants have faced challenges in the recent past. Earlier this month, Microsoft lost its exclusive status as OpenAI's cloud provider, following the announcement of US President Donald Trump's Stargate Project, a joint venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, which excluded Microsoft.
Later, Microsoft posted a blog claiming it remains in solid standing with OpenAI, maintaining a "right of first refusal" before OpenAI explores other collaborations.
The tension between the companies traces back to late 2023, when Mr Altman was briefly ousted as OpenAI CEO, only to be reinstated after pressure from Microsoft. During this period, Microsoft briefly received a non-voting board seat at OpenAI, though it was later relinquished. Despite this, Microsoft has recognised OpenAI as a competitor in its 2023 annual report, alongside other industry giants like Apple and Meta.
The partnership's future is likely to be influenced by the rise of AI innovation, driven by China's DeepSeek AI bot. DeepSeek recently became the top AI application on Apple's iPhone App Store, drawing attention for its capabilities similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT but with significantly fewer chips and less data, ultimately lowering production costs and time.
Mr Altman acknowledged DeepSeek's remarkable achievement in a series of posts on X, saying that its ability to deliver high performance at a fraction of the cost was "impressive." "We will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor," adding, "we will pull up some releases."
Sam Altman also said the world will be amazed by the advancements of next-generation models. He is focused on OpenAI's mission to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) and beyond.
