Microsoft seeks independence from OpenAI

Microsoft is reportedly developing its own large language models (LLMs) to reduce dependence on its longtime partner OpenAI, according to The Information.?

The details:

• Microsoft’s AI division, led by Mustafa Suleyman, has completed training a family of models known internally as MAI.?
• These MAI models reportedly perform nearly as well as leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic across common benchmarks.?
• Microsoft is also building its own reasoning models, which use chain-of-thought techniques similar to OpenAI’s o series to solve complex problems
• The company is additionally testing models from xAI, Meta and DeepSeek as potential OpenAI replacements for its Copilot products.?

The bigger picture: Microsoft partnered with OpenAI in 2016. In recent years, the company has focused internally on advancing its Phi family of small language models, while using OpenAI’s larger models as a selling point for its Copilot suite of AI tools. This news marks a major shift in strategy, with Microsoft positioning itself to directly compete in the LLM market.?