Microsoft's Major AI Partnerships

Microsoft has formed several significant partnerships in the field of artificial intelligence. A notable partnership is with generative artificial intelligence company Mistral AI, which provides access to Azure's AI infrastructure. This multi-year partnership was announced in February and was cleared by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, stating that the deal doesn't qualify for investigation under the Enterprise Act 2002. Microsoft invested $16 million in Mistral AI, making the French start-up's artificial intelligence models available through its Azure platform.

Microsoft has also formed a partnership with OpenAI. The financial details of this deal were not disclosed. This partnership is similar to an arrangement that Reddit had with Alphabet's Google. It's important to note that OpenAI dissolved its team that focused on the long-term risks posed by artificial intelligence a year after announcing the group. This decision was made following the departure of the team's leaders, Jan Leike and OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever. The team members are now integrated across multiple other teams within OpenAI.

In 2023, the Frontier Model Forum, led by OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet Inc, and AI startup Anthropic, appointed its first director and announced plans to establish an advisory board to guide its strategy. The forum also plans to develop a fund to support research into the technology.

However, Microsoft and OpenAI have faced legal challenges. The New York Times sued both companies last year, alleging that they used the newspaper's content without its permission.