OpenAI executives weigh antitrust accusation against Microsoft, WSJ reports
OpenAI's effort could involve seeking a federal regulatory review of the terms of its contract with Microsoft for potential violations of antitrust law, as well as a public campaign, the report said.
Such a move could unravel one of the most pivotal tech partnerships in the fast-growing field of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI needs Microsoft's approval to complete its transition into a public-benefit corporation. But the two have not been able to agree on details even after months of negotiations, sources said.
The companies are discussing revising the terms of Microsoft's investment, including the future equity stake it will hold in OpenAI, according to the sources.
Separately, The Information reported that OpenAI wants Microsoft to hold a 33% stake in a restructured unit in exchange for foregoing rights to future profits, citing a person who spoke to OpenAI executives.
The ChatGPT owner wants to modify existing clauses that give Microsoft exclusive rights to host OpenAI models in its cloud, the report added.
Microsoft has not agreed to OpenAI's proposed terms and is reportedly seeking additional concessions from the startup, according to The Information.
"Talks are ongoing and we are optimistic we will continue to build together for years to come," the companies told Reuters in a joint statement.
Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019 to support the startup's development of AI technologies on its Azure cloud platform.
Since then, however, OpenAI has been looking for ways to reduce its reliance on the tech heavyweight. The company plans to add Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google Cloud service to meet its growing needs for computing capacity, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Reporting by Niket Nishant, Nathan Gomes and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; additional reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal; Editing by Alan Barona and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News18
31 minutes ago
- News18
Friendly And Warm: OpenAI Is Changing How GPT 5 Behaves Amid User Complaints
ChatGPT 5 launch came with a lot of excitement and hype but OpenAI has been forced to make some changes after complaints. ChatGPT 5 could soon become warm and friendlier than its current version, something that many people have criticised about. OpenAI released GPT 5 with a lot of fanfare but the early excitement died down when people got to use the AI chatbot and realised that GPT 4o was much better in conversations and more personalised with them. OpenAI confirmed the news via a post on X which says, '"We're making GPT-5 warmer and friendlier based on feedback that it felt too formal before. Changes are subtle, but ChatGPT should feel more approachable now." OpenAI has taken the complaints seriously and these feedbacks will ensure the new chatbot is less formal than before. The company says changes will come into effect in a day's time and more updates will be shared soon. Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI claimed GPT 5 is scary good and performs at PhD level but that intelligence seems to have come at the cost of likability as a profile and people clearly didn't like that side of GPT 5 while using the AI chatbot. The conversational tone of GPT 4o was a hit with the users and it is good that Altman is reverting GPT 5 to this state without taking away its intelligence and other upgrades. ChatGPT 5 comes in three variants: GPT 5, GPT 5 Mini which is a lighter version and the GPT 5 nano that is claimed to be faster and cheaper to run on devices. ChatGPT 5 comes to free users as well but they can only use the GPT 5 and the Mini versions. The company has already made it possible for GPT 5 to work with Microsoft products and GPT 5 Pro tier users will soon be able to connect with Gmail, Google Calendar and more. OpenAI's new ChatGPT Pro version costs $200 per month which lets you unlock the GPT 5 Pro model and use other premium tier features. view comments First Published: August 18, 2025, 08:52 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
The Hindu
37 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Apple rejects Elon Musk's claim of App Store bias
Apple last week rejected Elon Musk's claim that its digital App Store favours OpenAI's ChatGPT over his company's Grok and other rival AI assistants. Musk has accused Apple of giving unfair preference to ChatGPT on its App Store and threatened legal action, triggering a fiery exchange with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week. "The App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias," Apple said in reply to an AFP inquiry. "We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria." Apple added that its goal at the App Store is to offer "safe discovery" for users and opportunities for developers to get their creations noticed. But earlier this week, Musk said Apple was "behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation," without providing evidence to back his claim. "xAI will take immediate legal action," he said on his social media network X, referring to his own artificial intelligence company, which is responsible for Grok. X users responded by pointing out that China's DeepSeek AI hit the top spot in the App Store early this year, and Perplexity AI recently ranked number one in the App Store in India. DeepSeek and Perplexity compete with OpenAI and Musk's startup xAI. Altman called Musk's accusation "remarkable" in a response on X, charging that Musk himself is said to "manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn't like." Musk called Altman a "liar" in the heated exchange. OpenAI and xAI recently released new versions of ChatGPT and Grok. App Store rankings listed ChatGPT as the top free app for iPhones on Thursday, with Grok in seventh place. Factors going into App Store rankings include user engagement, reviews and the number of downloads. Grok was temporarily suspended on Monday in the latest controversy surrounding the chatbot. No official explanation was provided for the suspension, which followed multiple accusations of misinformation including the bot's misidentification of war-related images, such as a false claim that an AFP photo of a starving child in Gaza was taken in Yemen years earlier. Last month, Grok triggered an online storm after inserting antisemitic comments into answers without prompting. In a statement on Grok's X account later that month, the company apologised "for the horrific behavior that many experienced." A US judge has cleared the way for a trial to consider OpenAI legal claims accusing Musk, a co-founder of the company, of waging a "relentless campaign" to damage the organisation after it achieved success following his departure. The litigation is another round in a bitter feud between the generative AI start-up and the world's richest person. Musk founded xAI in 2023 to compete with OpenAI and the other major AI players.
Hindustan Times
5 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Gamblers Now Bet on AI Models Like Racehorses
Now that AI developers are getting paid like pro athletes, it's fitting that fans are placing big bets on how well they're doing their jobs. Gamblers Now Bet on AI Models Like Racehorses On Kalshi, Polymarket and other sites where people wager 'predictions' on real-world events, gamblers lay down millions each month on their picks for AI's top model. The AI arms race is playing out in plain sight on social media, ranking sites and obscure corners of the internet where enthusiasts hunt for clues. The constant buzz makes the topic appealing for wagers, though not every scrap of information is meaningful. Foster McCoy made $10,000 in a few hours in early August by betting against the success of OpenAI's GPT-5 release. The 27-year-old day trader noticed people were misreading an online ranking site that appeared to hype GPT-5, so he put $4,500 on its competitor, Google's Gemini, to be 'Best AI This Month.' As more bettors fell in line with his call, he cashed out. That's just another day for McCoy, who has traded $3.2 million on Kalshi since the start of 2025—making $170,000. He's part of a growing contingent of bettors making hundreds of trades a week on AI markets, on a range of wagers such as 'Best AI at the end of 2025,' 'AI regulation becomes federal law this year,' and 'Will [Chief Executive] Sam Altman be granted an equity stake in OpenAI this year?' Trading volume across AI prediction markets has surged to around $20 million this month. Kalshi, the only platform currently available in the U.S., is seeing 10 times the volume on AI trades compared with the start of the year, a spokesman says. Each bet, or 'contract,' is priced in cents to reflect the odds: McCoy bought thousands of Gemini contracts at around 40 cents, meaning it had a 40% chance of winning. If the bet had settled and Gemini won, McCoy's 40 cents would become a dollar. If Gemini lost, McCoy would lose it all. But much of the action happens before the final outcome. As more people piled into the Gemini bet, the contract price rose. McCoy sold when it had reached 87 cents. It's like betting on a sports match, only with the option to cash out when the odds rise in favor of your bet. 'You're just betting against what the other guy knows,' says McCoy, who credits his success to 'being chronically online.' He trades from home on a triple-monitor setup tuned to the holy trinity of AI betting: X, Discord and LMArena, a leaderboard where people rate AI model performance in blind tests. Social-media beefs can be gold for gamblers. After GPT-5's debut, a flurry of Elon Musk posts claiming the superiority of his xAI Grok chatbot sent the 'Grok to Win' market up more than 500% within hours. Before long, it had fallen nearly all the way back down. Rishab Jain, a Harvard undergraduate, tracks back-end updates and obscure X posts to anticipate new AI model launches. Bettors end up down rabbit holes hunting for more obscure tidbits. Harvard undergraduate Rishab Jain often scans X accounts of lesser-known researchers. The day before GPT-5's release, OpenAI's Sam Altman posted an image of the Death Star from 'Star Wars.' When a researcher from Google's DeepMind replied with an image of the killer globe under attack, Jain read it as a sign of confidence from Gemini's makers. Jain also scrapes source files from Google's apps and monitors public GitHub repositories tied to its products, looking for back-end changes that might signal a soon-to-be-released Gemini model. 'I'm almost obsessively up-to-date with what's going on in this world,' Jain says. 'Google has so many products that need to integrate a new model before it officially launches, and you can see those changes happening in the back end if you know where to look.' Since starting in June, he has won $3,500. Strategies vary. Some bet on the big industry players, others buy low on less-known or soon-to-be-updated models. Some compare odds on Kalshi and Polymarket to find arbitrage opportunities in the odds. As volume for these AI trades continues to grow, the incentive for good information will only increase, and the squeeze on casual bettors will get tighter, says Robin Hanson, a professor of economics at George Mason University. 'When you have better information in these kinds of markets, you can make better decisions,' Hanson says. 'If you know a little more, you make more money.' For now, the markets still draw a mix of sharks like McCoy and Jain along with casual bettors. 'I'm just a dude that likes tech and has some time and money,' says James Cole, a 35-year-old who recently shut down a company he founded. 'I'm speculating with mostly instinct and 10 minutes of research.' He says he's up for the year…so far. Write to Ben Raab at Gamblers Now Bet on AI Models Like Racehorses
