Microsoft—Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI, becoming exclusive cloud provider and largest backer of frontier AI development
Between 2019 and 2023, Microsoft invested approximately $13 billion in OpenAI across multiple rounds ($1B in 2019, ~$2B in 2021, $10B in 2023), becoming its exclusive cloud provider via Azure and gaining rights to commercialize OpenAI's models. The partnership made Microsoft the dominant platform for frontier AI deployment. By October 2025, Microsoft's stake was valued at approximately $135 billion representing ~27% on a diluted basis.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Safety | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Antitrust & Competition | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.000 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Microsoft announced $10 billion multi-year investment in OpenAI
Microsoft announced a new multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI, reported as $10 billion over multiple years. This extended the partnership that began with a $1 billion investment in 2019, bringing total committed investment to approximately $13 billion.