Microsoft Surrenders OpenAI Board Position

Microsoft has given up its seat on OpenAI’s board, relinquishing a nonvoting position it gained late last year, as regulators intensify their scrutiny of the ties between the tech giant and the start-up behind the chatbot ChatGPT.

Microsoft told OpenAI of its decision in a letter delivered on Tuesday. The tech giant will remain the largest investor in OpenAI, with a 49 percent stake. It has committed to invest $13 billion in the artificial intelligence company that developed ChatGPT, which has become the world’s most popular chatbot because of its ability to answer questions, create images and write software code.

This week, OpenAI also told key investors and business partners that it would begin meeting with them on a quarterly basis, an OpenAI spokesman said. Those meetings will be open to investors, including Microsoft and the venture firms Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital, as well as Apple, which recently struck a deal to make ChatGPT available on iPhones later this year.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The companies have disputed those claims.)

Microsoft joined OpenAI’s board late last year as a nonvoting observer. It came weeks after OpenAI’s board fired and then reinstated Sam Altman as OpenAI’s chief executive. In the wake of that upheaval, OpenAI remade its board, bringing on four new directors.

In the letter to OpenAI, Keith Dolliver, Microsoft’s corporate secretary, said that the company had decided its role on the board was unnecessary because it had “witnessed significant progress from the newly formed board and are confident in the company’s direction.”

Microsoft’s decision coincides with European and U.S. regulators’ examination of its ties to OpenAI. In March, Europe’s antitrust enforcer, the European Commission, sent questions to Microsoft, Google, Meta and others about their investments in A.I. startups. It has since sent follow-up questions to Microsoft about its investment in OpenAI because it is concerned about how dominant companies could block smaller competitors from gaining access to A.I. technology.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission is embarking on an investigation into the Microsoft and OpenAI partnership, which has raised questions about whether it was structured to allow Microsoft to avoid a regulatory review.

Over the years, Microsoft has sought to avoid confrontation and instead has compromised with regulators. It managed to close a $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the video game publisher, in the more muscular regulatory environment by agreeing to offer games on rival consoles and license current and future games to a rival publisher.

Karen Weise contributed reporting.