Microsoft has announced “a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment” in OpenAI, extending its existing partnership with ChatGPT creator.

Microsoft has been an investor in OpenAI for several years and has exclusive access to some of the AI firm’s technology. Rumors surfaced two weeks ago that the Redmond-based company was looking to invest another $10 billion in OpenAI.

In a press release today, the two companies confirmed an extension of their ongoing partnership, although they did not disclose the exact amount.

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

“The past three years of our partnership have been great,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “Microsoft shares our values and we are excited to continue our independent research and work toward creating advanced AI that benefits everyone.”

The partnership will involve three primary areas:

• Microsoft will continue to invest heavily in OpenAI’s research and development of artificial intelligence.
• Microsoft will continue to deploy OpenAI’s AI tech across its platforms and products.
• OpenAI will exclusively use Microsoft’s Azure as its cloud provider.

Microsoft is believed to be working to integrate ChatGPT with a version of its Bing search engine in an effort to more effectively compete with Google. This extended partnership will no doubt open up additional opportunities for the company at a time when Google is trying to catch up.