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☆ Read the email to Satya Nadella and Bill Gates that shows Microsoft's CTO was 'very worried' about Google's AI progress in 2019
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Jyoti Mann | Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft's OpenAI investment may have been prompted by concerns over Google's AI progress. In a 2019 email, a Microsoft exec said he was "very, very worried" about Google's AI capabilities. AdvertisementIn 2019, Microsoft became "very, very worried" about Google's AI capabilities, newly unearthed emails show, and that may have been what spurred it to invest in OpenAI. In one lengthy email, Microsoft's chief technology officer Kevin Scott told Satya Nadella and Bill Gates that Google's AI-powered "auto-complete in Gmail" was "getting scarily good." Related storiesIn 2019, Microsoft made an initial $1 billion investment into its now multi-billion partnership with OpenAI.

Persons: —, Kevin Scott, Satya Nadella, Bill Gates, Nadella, Amy Hood, Bard, Scott, OpenAI, BERT Organizations: Microsoft, Google, Service, Department, Business, OpenAI, Bing Locations: OpenAI

☆ Tech's earnings bonanza this week shines spotlight on growing troubles at Tesla, Google
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesAs tech's behemoths get set to report earnings this week, they do so facing a mountain of drama. Tesla kicks off tech earnings season after the close of trading on Tuesday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker trading at their lowest since January 2023. When it comes to AI, Meta debuted its assistant — Meta AI — on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger last week. Loren Elliott | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesOn a busy Thursday for tech earnings, Alphabet is likely to capture the most attention. On Thursday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced a consolidation of the company's AI teams, including responsible AI and related research teams, under the Google DeepMind umbrella.

Persons: Sundar Pichai, Justin Sullivan, tech's behemoths, Tesla, Microsoft's, Lip, CNBC's, we've, Brandon Bell, Drew Baglino, Rohan Patel, Musk, John Murphy, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, Wall, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Joe Biden, Republican Donald Trump, Loren Elliott, Ruth Porat, Thomas Kurian's, livestreamed, Pichai, that's, Satya Nadella, Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, chatbot, MSFT Organizations: Inc, Government, Society, Google, Big Tech, Nvidia, BakerAvenue Wealth Management, Tech, Meta, Microsoft, Getty, Elon Musk's EV, Bank of America, Reality Labs, Facebook, Republican, Bloomberg, CNBC, Google Cloud, Union, Apple, Guggenheim Locations: Stanford , California, Austin , Texas, New York, Sunnyvale , California, Sunnyvale, Seattle, San Francisco , California, OpenAI, Mistral, U.S

The companies announced an initial $1.25 billion investment in September, and said at the time that Amazon would invest up to $4 billion. The deal was struck at the AI startup's last valuation, which was $18.4 billion, according to a source. Over the past year, Anthropic closed five different funding deals worth about $7.3 billion — and with the new Amazon investment, the total exceeds $10 billion. News of the Amazon investment comes weeks after Anthropic debuted Claude 3, its newest suite of AI models that it says are its fastest and most powerful yet. But multimodality, and increasingly complex AI models, also lead to more potential risks.

Persons: Claude, Anthropic, OpenAI's, what's, Swami Sivasubramanian, OpenAI's ChatGPT, OpenAI, Microsoft's OpenAI, Anthropic's Claude, Daniela Amodei, We've, Tesla, Brendan Burke, Bill Gurley, Gurley, Microsoft's, Lina Khan Organizations: Amazon, Google, CNBC, Fortune, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, U.S . Federal Trade Commission Locations: San Francisco, Anthropic, OpenAI

☆ Nvidia's partners and more: BofA picks key global stocks along the AI supply chain
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

But many smaller firms along the global AI supply chain also stand to benefit. It has worked with Google for over a decade, thanks to its ability to produce highly customized server design, BofA noted. With rising AI server applications and GPU supply, it expects the AI server GPU baseboard business to account for 3% to 6% of Wistron's total sales in 2024 and 2025. Hardware tech Hardware tech such as printed circuit boards are the upstream parts of the AI server supply chain. In addition, its partnership with Nvidia in automotive AI should widen its AI opportunities, BofA noted.

Persons: BofA, there's, Microsoft's OpenAI, Unimicron, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Big U.S, Nvidia, Microsoft, Global, Google, Semiconductors Locations: Big, Taiwan, Greater China, Asia

LONDON (AP) — Italian regulators said they told OpenAI that its ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot has violated European Union’s stringent data privacy rules. The watchdog started investigating ChatGPT last year, when it temporarily banned within Italy the chatbot that can produce text, images and sound in response to users' questions. The growing popularity of generative AI systems like ChatGPT are also drawing increasing scrutiny from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Competition regulators in the 27-nation EU and Britain, meanwhile, are also examining Microsoft's OpenAI investments. AI systems also face broader oversight in the EU, which is f inalizing its groundbreaking AI Act, the world's first comprehensive rulebook for artificial intelligence.

Persons: OpenAI, chatbot, ChatGPT, “ Organizations: San, EU, Data, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Google, Microsoft, Competition Locations: San Francisco, Italy, EU, Britain

☆ The generative AI hype hasn't translated to cloud sales yet, as customers don't know if they should jump in. Microsoft is the one exception.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft and Google, the next two biggest American cloud providers, also saw cloud revenue growth rates slow this year. Microsoft Azure and other cloud services saw revenue growth of 29%, down from 35% this time last year. Wall Street has been hopeful that generative AI will provide a much-needed revenue boost for the big three cloud providers. The one exception is Microsoft, which has spent billions investing in generative AI startup OpenAI, maker of the chatbot ChatGPT. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stressed on the earnings call Thursday that generative AI is still in its "early days."

Persons: Karl Keirstead, they're, they'd, Rishi Jaluria, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Web Services, Google, UBS, Enterprises, Wall, RBC Capital Markets, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, Israel, ethomas@insider.com

☆ The generative-AI hype hasn't translated to cloud sales yet, as customers don't know if they should jump in. Microsoft is the one exception.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Ellen Thomas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rates of cloud-computing sales growth slowed to historical lows this year as customers slashed IT budgets. Microsoft and Google, the next two biggest American cloud providers, also saw rates of cloud-revenue growth slow this year. Microsoft's Azure and other cloud services saw revenue growth of 29%, down from 35% this time last year. Google this week reported a 22% year-over-year increase in cloud revenue the past quarter, down from 28% the previous quarter. The company attributed this to customer "optimization," or looking for ways to save money on cloud services.

Persons: Karl Keirstead, they're, they'd, Rishi Jaluria, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Ellen Thomas Organizations: Microsoft, Web Services, Google, Enterprises, UBS, Wall, RBC Capital Markets, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, Israel, ethomas@insider.com

☆ Microsoft's OpenAI has the best model for enterprise customers, says Oppenheimer's Timothy Horan
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMicrosoft's OpenAI has the best model for enterprise customers, says Oppenheimer's Timothy HoranOppenheimer's Timothy Horan joins 'The Exchange' to discuss the rationale for a Microsoft outperform rating, Microsoft's race to leverage AI, and expectations for upcoming tech earnings.

Persons: OpenAI, Oppenheimer's Timothy Horan Oppenheimer's Timothy Horan

☆ Teladoc Health expands Microsoft tie-up to automate documentation with AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

July 18 (Reuters) - Teladoc Health (TDOC.N) is expanding a partnership with Microsoft (MSFT.O) to use the tech giant's artificial intelligence services to automate clinical documentation on its telehealth platform. The integration of AI services including Microsoft's OpenAI, owner of viral chatbot ChatGPT, will help ease the burden on healthcare staff during virtual exams, Teladoc said on Tuesday. The companies have been collaborating since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, wherein Teladoc integrated its Solo virtual healthcare platform into Microsoft Teams. Teladoc will now also use Microsoft's Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience, an AI-powered voice-enabled solution that uses the GPT4 AI service, to automatically document patient encounters, the telehealth company said. Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Microsoft's OpenAI, Teladoc, Leroy Leo, Devika Organizations: Teladoc, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Google tells staff it plans to limit publishing AI research to 'compete and keep knowledge in house' as its rivalry with Microsoft's OpenAI heats up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Google told staff it will be more selective about the research it publishes. Recently, information like code and data has become accessible on a "much more on a need-to-know" basis, according to a Google AI staffer. LaMDA, a chatbot technology that forms the basis of Bard, was originally built as a 20 percent project within Google Brain. (The company has historically allowed employees to spend 20% of their working days exploring side projects that might turn into full-fledged Google products.) Google's AI division has faced other setbacks.

☆ Ark Invest's chief futurist on how AI race threatens Google's 'fragile' business model
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Kevin Schmidt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I think Google is fundamentally impaired by this transition to AI," Brett Winton, the chief futurist at Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management, told Melissa Lee on CNBC's ' Fast Money ' recently. "Their entire business model is built around taking people and delivering them to the next byte, and these AI systems actually deliver answers to the end users" he said. 'Fragile' model Moving forward, Winton doesn't see head-to-head competition between search engines necessarily leading to a winning AI strategy. "I think Google's model is fragile, and it doesn't necessarily accrue to Microsoft's benefit," he said. "It's much clearer that there will be a lot of money spent on AI investment," Winton said, adding that the key for either tech giant to be well-positioned is by providing AI capabilities in their software."

☆ Microsoft to infuse software with more AI as Google rivalry heats up
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft is staking its future on AI through billions of dollars of investment. Working with the startup OpenAI, the company is aiming to rival Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and potentially claim vast returns from tools that speed up all manner of content creation, automating tasks if not jobs themselves. “This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category," said Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, in a briefing for reporters at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. "Microsoft is looking to win this AI battle," he said in a research note on Monday. Last week Microsoft announced the startup's AI will generate meeting notes in Teams, its collaboration software, as well as suggest email replies to vendors using its Viva Sales subscription.

☆ Microsoft packs Bing search engine, Edge browser with AI in big challenge to Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft is staking its future on AI through billions of dollars of investment as it directly challenges Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google. “This technology is going to reshape pretty much every software category," Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella told reporters in a briefing at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. On Monday it unveiled a chatbot of its own called Bard, while it is planning to release AI for its search engine that can synthesize material when no simple answer exists online. PRACTICAL USESAt the event, Mehdi demonstrated how the AI-enhanced search engine will make shopping and creating emails much easier. For the quarter ending Dec. 31, Alphabet reported $42.6 billion in Google Search and other revenue, while Microsoft posted $3.2 billion from search and news advertising.

☆ Microsoft's $10 billion bet on ChatGPT's maker gives it a powerful new weapon in the cloud wars with Amazon and Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Cloud, increasingly important to Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, is slowing down in the short term. But the company has a longer-term strategic weapon that could help it win the cloud wars: its once-in-a-generation bet on OpenAI. Any hint of a slowdown in growth for Microsoft's Azure, Amazon's AWS, and Google Cloud tends to provoke analyst angst. Even if there are immediate challenges for cloud growth, Microsoft sees its OpenAI bet, reported to be worth $10 billion, as a bigger strategic move. Microsoft Cloud, which also includes revenue from Office 365 and other products as well as Azure, represented around 50% of the company's overall revenue.

☆ Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft said Wednesday that it's letting go of 10,000 employees through March 31 as the software maker braces for slower revenue growth. "I'm confident that Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive," CEO Satya Nadella told employees in a memo that was posted on Microsoft's website. Microsoft has called for 2% revenue growth in the fiscal second quarter, which would be the slowest rate since 2016. In 2017 Microsoft laid off thousands of employees in a broad reorganization of its sales unit. The charge relates to severance, changes to the company's hardware lineup and the cost of consolidating leases, Nadella wrote.

☆ Microsoft layoffs shake up the unit responsible for integrating ChatGPT technology into Bing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

WebXT includes the team responsible for integrating AI technology from ChatGPT into Bing. Affected units include Microsoft's Web Experience Team, known internally as WebXT, which includes the company's Bing search engine and Edge web browser. Notably, this is the unit responsible for integrating ChatGPT technology into Bing. The Information reported earlier this year that Microsoft plans to use the same AI as ChatGPT to provide users with answers to some searches. One Microsoft employee theorized that the layoffs will help Microsoft cut higher-paid staff and hire new employees at lower compensation into investment areas like Bing.

☆ Microsoft's OPENAI investment won't help it rival Google search, says tech analyst
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Melissa Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMicrosoft's OPENAI investment won't help it rival Google search, says tech analystBrent Thill of Jefferies on what Microsoft's OPENAI deal could mean for the company. With CNBC's Melissa Lee and the Fast Money traders, Tim Seymour, Karen Finerman, Dan Nathan and Guy Adami.

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