Microsoft’s Satya Nadella wants stability at OpenAI, not more control

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he wants good governance and steadiness at OpenAI, but he’s not worried about the company’s nonprofit structure and doesn’t want greater control over his partner.

“What we just want is good stability,” he said in an interview at Bloomberg House in Davos. “We invested, we partnered when they were whatever they were and whatever they are today — a capped-profit, nonprofit, what have you. So I’m comfortable. I have no issues with any structure.”

Nadella also said his company, which received a non-voting board observer role at OpenAI following the surprise ouster and rapid return of CEO Sam Altman, does not desire an actual seat on the AI research company’s board.

Under Nadella, Microsoft has pumped $13 billion into OpenAI, making Microsoft the company’s largest investor. Microsoft has also overhauled Microsoft’s entire product line around the OpenAI technology that underlies ChatGPT, a product Nadella identified as the “first AI product that we all could relate to.”

Yet, Nadella said Microsoft is not too dependent on OpenAI, noting that OpenAI relies on Microsoft for key parts of the technology it needs to create its products, and that Microsoft is also researching and developing its own AI programs apart from its partner.

“I feel very good about the construct we have,” he said about the partnership. “I feel at the same time very capable of controlling our own destiny.”