Elon Musk revealed: He once strongly advocated for OpenAI to choose Microsoft over Amazon for collaboration, and Bezos was a bit "self-righteous."
In 2016, Musk suggested to OpenAI co-founder Altman to prioritize Microsoft over Amazon as a cloud service partner, and in an email, he commented that Amazon CEO Bezos was "a bit too clever for his own good." Altman also criticized Amazon's terms as harsh and its technology as subpar in his reply
Court documents and email evidence made public on Tuesday local time show that as early as 2016, Elon Musk had suggested that OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman choose Microsoft over Amazon as a cloud computing partner.
Musk stated in an email that he believed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was "a bit too clever for his own good," while he had a better impression of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, although he also expressed dissatisfaction with Microsoft's marketing department. Altman replied that Amazon was "playing us" on the terms of the partnership, especially regarding marketing commitments, and pointed out that its products were technically not that great.
This early suggestion resonates with subsequent developments. In 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI, later increasing the total investment to $13 billion, achieving a milestone partnership. According to the agreement, Microsoft would receive a share of OpenAI's revenue until 2030 or until the company developed human-level artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, Amazon turned to invest in OpenAI's competitor, Anthropic. However, Amazon is still negotiating a $10 billion partnership with OpenAI, involving OpenAI's use of Amazon's AI chips.
Additionally, Nadella revealed in his testimony that after Altman was fired by the board in 2023, tech giants like Google and Meta quickly acted to try to recruit core team members from OpenAI.
Poaching War Amid Executive Crisis
Nadella's testimony, also made public on Tuesday, revealed that after Altman's sudden dismissal at the end of 2023, the entire tech industry engaged in fierce competition for OpenAI's core talent, and one of Nadella's main goals at the time was to "ensure they wouldn't start a new competitive AI lab."
Nadella disclosed that Google co-founder Sergey Brin had directly contacted OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. He stated, "Altman and Brockman received calls from almost everyone, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and in some cases even Elon Musk."
According to text messages read at the meeting, then OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati wrote after Altman's dismissal: "Nadella said he was calming Sam, hoping he wouldn't take highly competitive actions," such as starting a new AI company. In fact, just two days after Altman's firing, Nadella had formally extended an invitation to him and Brockman to join Microsoft
