Salesforce CEOHints at Microsoft’s Potential Independence from OpenAI

January 24, 2025 – Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, chuckled when discussing the emerging rift between Microsoft and OpenAI during an interview with CNBC at the Davos World Economic Forum.

Recently, OpenAI announced plans to collaborate with SoftBank and Oracle on a massive $500 billion data center project named “Stargate,” effectively ending Microsoft’s exclusive role as OpenAI’s cloud service provider.

“I think it’s significant that OpenAI is quickly shifting to other platforms,” Benioff predicted. “Microsoft is developing its own AI technology and might not rely on OpenAI in the future. They’ll have their cutting-edge models.” He added with a smile, “That’s why they hired Mustafa Suleyman, and Suleyman and Sam Altman aren’t the best of friends.”

Benioff noted that tensions between the two had been evident since the previous year’s Davos Forum, recalling, “Sam and Mustafa were on stage together, but their relationship clearly wasn’t harmonious.”

Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, much earlier than ChatGPT’s release in late 2022. Now, as OpenAI seems poised to become a tech giant, it could potentially rival Microsoft. Previously, OpenAI attributed product delays to insufficient computing resources, suggesting its data center needs might have surpassed what Microsoft could (or was willing to) provide. Furthermore, the exclusive agreement between OpenAI and Microsoft states that once artificial general intelligence (AGI) is achieved, as recognized by both parties, the agreement terminates. According to Altman, AGI is imminent.

Reports indicate that tensions between the two companies had been escalating since at least mid-2023 when OpenAI launched its enterprise products, competing directly with Microsoft. In late 2023, after Altman’s reinstatement as OpenAI CEO following his dismissal, employees from both companies expressed their disdain for the collaboration to Business Insider. Some OpenAI employees were reported to have a condescending attitude towards their Microsoft counterparts.

A few months later, in early 2024, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella retaliated by hiring Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection, to lead the company’s AI division.

Despite rumors of Microsoft developing its own large language model, MAI-1, the company announced a new AI team led by Jay Parikh this month. Focused on developing AI agents and applications, the announcement made no mention of OpenAI.

For Benioff, the fracture in the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is welcome news. Salesforce utilizes OpenAI’s enterprise models and has invested in Anthropic, a competitor of OpenAI.

Interestingly, Suleyman has expressed skepticism about Altman’s vision, particularly regarding AGI. In an interview with The Verge last month, he acknowledged that the partnership with OpenAI had experienced “occasional frictions.”

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