Emails shown in court during the Musk v. Altman trial reveal that Microsoft debated whether OpenAI was worth backing in 2018. The discussions included more than a dozen Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, and show a company that questioned OpenAI’s technical progress while weighing the strategic risk of letting a rival step in.
Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence team saw “no value in engaging” with OpenAI, and the research team believed its own work was “more advanced.” The company’s public relations team also objected to supporting an organization associated with the idea of “machines beating humans.” The internal tone suggests Microsoft viewed OpenAI less as a clear technical leader at the time and more as a partner whose claims and positioning created uncertainty.
Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott wrote that he was “highly skeptical of an imminent breakthrough in AGI” and that OpenAI was “treating us like a bucket of undifferentiated GPUs,” but raised concerns about the PR downsides of not funding them and “having them storm off to Amazon in a huff and shit-talk us and Azure on the way out.” The emails indicate that competitive pressure from Amazon and concern over public perception shaped Microsoft’s thinking as much as belief in OpenAI’s near-term breakthroughs.
Microsoft eventually invested ?B in OpenAI in 2019, and CEO Satya Nadella is set to take the witness stand on Monday. The courtroom disclosures offer a snapshot of a pivotal moment when Microsoft’s leadership was torn between skepticism about OpenAI’s trajectory and the fear of losing influence over a fast-rising Artificial Intelligence lab.
