Microsoft has relinquished its non-voting observer seat on the board of OpenAI, less than eight months after securing the position. This move follows reports that Apple, which was planning to join OpenAI’s nonprofit board, will no longer do so. OpenAI confirmed Microsoft’s decision and announced plans to host regular stakeholder meetings to ensure collaboration on safety and security.
The changes come amid increasing antitrust concerns over Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. UK regulators began investigating the partnership in December, shortly after the upheaval that led to CEO Sam Altman’s brief ousting and return. EU regulators are also examining the deal, along with other major tech AI partnerships, and the FTC is investigating investments by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google in OpenAI and Anthropic.
Microsoft has invested over $10 billion in OpenAI, becoming its exclusive cloud partner. This partnership powers all OpenAI workloads across various products and services, giving Microsoft a significant advantage in the AI market. OpenAI’s models support Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Copilot, and numerous AI features across its offerings.
