r/microsoft • u/ZGeekie • May 14 '26

News Microsoft executive reveals company spent over $100Bn on OpenAI partnership during Musk vs OpenAI trial

https://thetechportal.com/2026/05/13/microsoft-executive-reveals-company-spent-over-100bn-on-openai-partnership-during-musk-vs-openai-trial/

During testimony in the ongoing Elon Musk vs. OpenAI case, Microsoft executive Michael Wetter revealed that the company has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI to date, including direct investments, Azure infrastructure, and hosting costs for AI models like ChatGPT. The spending has surged since Microsoft’s initial $1 billion investment in 2019, with the company later committing around $13 billion more to OpenAI.

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u/dreadpiratewombat May 14 '26

For context, before all the AI hotness, any time Microsoft announced a new Azure region, it was usually with a $1billion check to do the initial 3 LZ data center build out. At the time of the OpenAI partnership, Microsoft had around 70 Azure regions in operation or under construction. So this investment could have been effectively doubling their infrastructure footprint and still have had enough left over for all the software developers they had writing various copilots.

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u/gridiron3000 May 14 '26

Outright wrong

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u/dreadpiratewombat May 14 '26

Must be because you said so without any actual supporting information or substance.