Microsoft dumping ton of cash into ChatGPT Office infusion

Fresh after rumors of using OpenAI's writing technology in its productivity apps, Microsoft is now preparing to invest $10 billion into the AI tool company.

Tools using artificial intelligence are becoming a more important element of computing, and Microsoft is seemingly backing an expansion in the field. It apparently intends to do so by investing $10 billion into OpenAI, the producers of the popular text tool ChatGPT.

The investment is part of a larger funding round that involves other investors, people familiar with the matter told Semaphor on Tuesday, but it is unclear if the deal has been finalized.

Documents allegedly sent to potential investors indicate a closure of the investment round was set for the end of 2022. It is unclear if the deal actually completed, or if it has persisted into 2023.

If it goes ahead, the acquisition will value OpenAI at approximately $29 billion. Under the deal, Microsoft would receive 75% of OpenAI's profits until it recoups the investment, before reverting to a structure where Microsoft owns 49% of OpenAI.

This would not be Microsoft's first investment into the company. It was reported on Saturday that Microsoft had invested $1 billion into OpenAI in 2019, to build technologies that could work in its products.

It is thought that Microsoft wants to incorporate AI tech from OpenAI into apps, providing ways for users to write stretches of text and emails for Word and Outlook, based on smaller prompts.

There has also been the suggestion that, by using per-client machine learning with enhanced privacy, the AI models could pick up on language used by the user or an entire company, which could improve suggested texts.