Microsoft was worried OpenAI would run off to Amazon and ‘shit-talk’ Azure
Court documents reveal Microsoft's panic over losing OpenAI to AWS in 2017.
Deep Dive
Court documents from the Musk v. Altman trial reveal Microsoft executives worried OpenAI would leave for Amazon after initial
Key Points
- OpenAI requested $300M in Azure credits in 2017 after its Dota 2 bot beat a pro player.
- Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott warned OpenAI could 'storm off to Amazon' and badmouth Azure if denied funding.
- Microsoft eventually invested $1B in 2018, but OpenAI later expanded to AWS in a 2025 renegotiation.
Why It Matters
Cloud giants compete fiercely for AI talent; even multi-billion dollar partnerships can fracture over compute costs.