OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is pitching ChatGPT Enterprise to large corporations, in some cases competing with his own major investor, Reuters reports.
According to the report, Altman hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 executives in San Francisco, New York and London this month. Attendees, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that Altman spoke directly with more than 100 executives at each event, including Microsoft customers.
Altman and COO Brad Lightcap gave product demos, including ChatGPT Enterprise, software for connecting customer applications to OpenAI's AI services (APIs), and new text-to-video models. The OpenAI leaders highlighted applications such as call center management and translation.
According to Altman and Lightcap, the advantage of ChatGPT Enterprise over Microsoft is that companies can work directly with the OpenAI team, have access to the latest models, and have more options for custom AI products.
Lightcap recently confirmed that ChatGPT Enterprise currently has 600,000 individual users. OpenAI might see more revenue potential in the enterprise environment at the moment. An indication of this is that the company has recently introduced extensive customization services for enterprises, while the growth of the web version of ChatGPT, as measured by web traffic, has been stagnant for more than half a year.
Friendly Enemies
It is well known that OpenAI and Microsoft are both partners and competitors, referring to each other as "frenemies".
The competition with OpenAI is probably desired by Microsoft, as both the FTC and the EU Commission are investigating the alliance between the two companies. However, Microsoft reportedly holds 49% of OpenAI and is therefore in a very dominant position.
In November 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed how deeply involved Microsoft is in OpenAI: "It is not hands-off, we are in there, we are below them, above them and around them. It is a joint project," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a podcast with tech journalist Kara Swisher.
Despite the close relationship, Nadella emphasized that Microsoft is not overly dependent on OpenAI, as the company provides key technology components and conducts extensive AI research of its own.
Recently, Microsoft acquired most of the staff of Inflection, a well-funded London-based AI startup, and appointed its CEO, Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, as its new head of AI for consumer products. The move may also serve to strengthen Microsoft's independence from OpenAI.
