Why Microsoft and OpenAI Announced a Tentative Deal

As we wrap up what has been a busy week in artificial intelligence-cloud land—one dominated by Oracle—we want to circle back to the striking announcement on Thursday night from Microsoft and OpenAI. Anytime two companies, worth at least $4.5 trillion combined, issue a three-sentence press release with no concrete information about a highly important subject, it makes you think.

Their 49-word joint statement said they had a “non-binding memorandum of understanding about the next phase of our partnership” and were “actively working to finalize contractual terms.” It’s a good bet that negotiating an actual agreement could take another few weeks, or longer, in which case you have to wonder why they put out the press release now.