Microsoft loses status as OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft loses status as OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider

cnbc.com

35 pointsbelter21 comments

Sounds like they’ll be using Oracle Cloud alongside Azure. Deepest sympathies to the OpenAI team using Oracle Cloud.

I thought this was sarcastic, but TIL Oracle Cloud[1] is actually a thing. I mean, of course it’s a thing. As a customer of three well known big cloud providers, somehow i never even knew they were in the race.

[1] https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/GSG/Concepts/bare...

I’ve never seen anyone use it, but I recall hearing about it only because Oracle sued to try and block AWS from getting a large DoD contact a few years back because they wanted the contract instead.

They lost their challenge: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracle-loses-challenge-10-bil...

But kind of won something in the end? https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-amazoncom-inc...

Bit of a worry with the latest Ellison ravings.

Reference?

Probably this: https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/oracles-larry-ellison-...

Honestly, it just feels like he's saying the quiet part loud.

Given my local council has recently added Person of Interest tracking capability to their camera network (click on a person, and the system shows you their movements through the camera network during the day), this seems more like yesterdays news than "quiet":

> “Citizens will be on their best behaviour, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,

If Larry is spruiking it, it's because he thinks he can make money from it. I wasn't aware that Oracle had any serious chops in AI, so the quiet part is: "how is Larry planning to make money by watching my every move". Convince them to split the littering fine for every transgression his AI network finds, perhaps? Hell, I'm sure he'd even offer to collect the fines for them, for a small fee.

Well, it looks like SoftBank is on track to (again) lose a few billion dollars. My guess is that SoftBank will bankroll OpenAI's spend on Oracle cloud. The spend will probably be written off - as with all of SoftBank's projects. Winners will be OpenAI and Oracle, loser will be SoftBank.

Trump will probably claim he is making AI great again (or he is the best AI this and that)

But the other way around too. Microsoft started working with Anthropic a couple months ago.

Does it mean they didn’t want to invest more in OpenAI as they’re struggling to see a positive return? Or OpenAI tries to become more independent? Either way it looks like their relationship is pretty tense right now

I think investing more will attract market watchdog attention. They didn't cap their share to 49% for no reason.

There isn't any real strategic value for either to have an exclusive relationship.

This market is in explosive innovation and locking down strategic and tactical options wouldn't be good guiding principle for either.

OpenAI now bought leverage for compute by granting Oracle an entry ticket.

They probably learn sufficient to be able to develop their own models from their work with OpenAI and is now OK with others getting to run the compiled binaries without granting them access to the inner workings of the models.

I believe they just don’t think OpenAI has the moat they thought they had.

I wouldn't be so sure. Sam Altman has managed to post _a lot_ of interesting tweets about Donald Trump over the years, starting as far back as 2016, and they're all now getting reposted, sure to get Trump's attention. That's before we even mention Sam's beef with Musk (or rather the other way around). Just look at the contortions he's now putting himself through: https://x.com/sama/status/1882234406662000833. OpenAI could end up getting sidelined, if Stargate even happens at all - there's currently no money for it, according to Musk.

Something tells me they are going to accelerate their in house model and call it “Orion”.

If that plan to cultivate a strong OpenAI competitor within Microsoft is still a thing, and I think it is, I think they will not give a single F.

That they gave green light to OpenAI to do this says a lot.

I doubt Microsoft is dictating terms here. I think the scene is many organizations competing for the opportunity to supply OpenAI’s compute. And OpenAI making choices based on business, technical, and political considerations.

Microsoft does not only provide compute through Azure, but currently also has a stake of 49% in OpenAI.

So while they don't have anyone actually on the board, they do have quite some leverage.

I wonder how many board seats Microsoft controls compared to Altman loyalists.

Edit - last year, Microsoft quit the OpenAI board https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-openai-artificial-intel...

I think Microsoft’s shares don’t have voting power.

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