According to the Financial Times, OpenAI is in “a difficult negotiation” with Microsoft, one of its largest investors and partners.
Recently, the AI startup announced a major change in its corporate restructuring plans. While it still intends to convert its business unit into a for profit public benefit corporation (PBC), its nonprofit board will retain control.
According to the FT, it spoke with multiple sources who described Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion into OpenAI, as a major holdout in the restructuring. The crux of the negotiations is how much equity Microsoft receives in the new for profit entity. However, the companies also reportedly are renegotiating the broader contract. Microsoft has offered to give up some equity in exchange for the right to access OpenAI technology that will be developed after the current 2020 deadline. Sources told the FT, too, that the negotiations are complicated because of the increasing competition between the two companies as OpenAI’s enterprise division has grown and it pursues the wildly ambitious Stargate project.
