Microsoft's relationship with OpenAI cracked when it hired Mustafa Suleyman, rival Marc Benioff says

Microsoft and OpenAI Relationship Dynamics - Microsoft is no longer the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI as part of OpenAI's $500 billion data center project called Stargate, which involves partnerships with SoftBank and Oracle [1] - Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, but OpenAI's growth and need for more data center capacity have led to the end of their exclusive agreement [2] - Tensions between Microsoft and OpenAI have been building since mid-2023, particularly after OpenAI released its own enterprise product, and employees from both companies have expressed dissatisfaction with working together [3] Leadership and Strategic Moves - Microsoft hired DeepMind and Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead Microsoft AI, signaling a potential shift away from reliance on OpenAI [4] - Microsoft is reportedly working on its own large language model (LLM) called MAI-1, and a new AI group led by Jay Parikh was announced without mentioning OpenAI [4] - Mustafa Suleyman has publicly dismissed Sam Altman's vision around AGI and acknowledged "little tensions" in the OpenAI partnership [5] Industry Implications - Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff views the rift between Microsoft and OpenAI as positive, as Salesforce uses OpenAI's enterprise models and is an investor in OpenAI rival Anthropic [5] - OpenAI's move to diversify its cloud partnerships and its potential to become a tech giant could reshape the competitive landscape in the AI industry [2][5]