Amazon MGM Studios has backed away from “Artificial,” a nearly finished film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The studio said last week that the film would “be better served if it were released by a different studio.” Read More
SpaceX’s IPO filing includes new details about the Starlink satellite factory in Redmond. Jeff Bezos talks wealth, inequality, and AI on CNBC. And John turns to ChatGPT and Gemini when FIFA’s ticketing support falls short. Read More
Computer scientist and AI industry veteran Oren Etzioni argues that OpenAI’s nonprofit-to-for-profit conversion sets a dangerous precedent for American charity law, and that the real reckoning will have to come from Washington, not the Oakland courtroom. Read More
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott publicly addressed for the first time a 2018 email that Musk’s lawyers have cited as evidence Microsoft knew OpenAI was abandoning its nonprofit mission. A confidential board memo filed in the case reveals how Microsoft’s fear of falling behind Google drove the investment. Read More
Sam Altman faced pointed questions about his financial ties to the Everett, Wash., fusion startup during testimony in the Musk v. Altman trial, as Congress separately raised conflict-of-interest concerns. Read More
Newly unredacted documents from the Musk v. Altman trial reveal the names Microsoft executives vetoed, endorsed, and suggested for OpenAI’s board during the November 2023 crisis around Sam Altman’s ouster as CEO. Read More
Satya Nadella testified for roughly two and a half hours in the Musk v. Altman trial in Oakland, revealing internal emails in which he worried about Microsoft’s dependence on OpenAI, and new details about his input regarding OpenAI’s board after the Altman firing. Read More
The GeekWire Podcast goes inside the Elon Musk trial against OpenAI and Microsoft, breaks down blockbuster earnings from Microsoft and Amazon, and tells the story of a tiny Seattle VC firm that hustled its way into a billion-dollar AI deal. Read More
SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon moved quickly Tuesday to capitalize on OpenAI’s new relationship status with Microsoft, launching a preview of OpenAI’s models on its Bedrock platform less than 24 hours after the ChatGPT maker was freed from its previously exclusive cloud arrangement. Read More
Amid the feud between two of tech’s most polarizing personalities, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, Microsoft might seem like a subplot, but its actions are at the heart of the case. We’re at the courthouse in Oakland as jury selection begins. Read More
Microsoft and OpenAI announced a major amendment to their partnership Monday, making Microsoft’s IP license non-exclusive and opening all OpenAI products to any cloud provider. It came just as jury selection began in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, Altman, and Microsoft. Read More
The Seattle-area fusion startup Helion Energy is negotiating a deal to supply OpenAI with a staggering 5 gigawatts of power by 2030 — if its technology works. Read More
Pre-trial motions in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft focus in part on his company’s business dealings with the Redmond company, and what that means for his credibility as a witness. Read More
Amazon’s $50 billion OpenAI investment made big headlines, but the SEC filings tell a more complicated story. Here’s how the money flows, what triggers the payments, and what the companies are keeping secret. Read More
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Newly unsealed court documents reveal the behind-the-scenes history of Microsoft and OpenAI, including a surprise: Amazon Web Services was the Silicon Valley AI lab’s original partner. We tell the story behind the story, explaining how it came to light. Read More
Internal emails, texts, slide decks, and deposition testimony show how Microsoft went from being sidelined at OpenAI’s founding to wielding decisive influence over the AI lab that launched the generative AI era — and how that power is now being tested as OpenAI emerges as a platform company with leverage of its own. Read More
Microsoft has formed a new Superintelligence team, led by Mustafa Suleyman, to pursue what it calls “humanist superintelligence” — advanced AI that remains under human control. The effort reflects Microsoft’s bid to shape the next era of AI while emphasizing safety and restraint. Read More
In a major expansion of its cloud partnerships, OpenAI signed a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services to train and run future AI models, reflecting both the scale of the AI boom and the increasingly complex ties among the industry’s biggest players. Read More
Zillow and Expedia are among the first companies to launch apps inside ChatGPT, joining OpenAI’s new platform for conversational software — and raising familiar questions about control, privacy, and platform power in the AI era. Read More
At the Madrona IA Summit in Seattle, OpenAI strategy chief Jason Kwon outlined how startups can avoid getting “Sherlocked” by the AI giant, while also offering insights on AGI, profitability, and the company’s new push into e-commerce. Read More
Microsoft and OpenAI announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding Thursday afternoon, signaling that they’ve agreed in principle on changing and continuing one of the defining partnerships of the AI era. Read More
Just as the PC and cloud defined much of Microsoft’s first 50 years, and just as its struggles in mobile set the company back in the smartphone era, its success or failure in AI promises to determine its fate for decades to come. Read More
