Part 6/10:
Tensions escalated in late 2023 when OpenAI’s board fired Sam Altman, triggering a dramatic power struggle. Nadella intervened strongly to reinstate Altman, revealing how dependent Microsoft had become on OpenAI’s technology. The fallout solidified OpenAI’s independent trajectory, with the release of web search functionalities in ChatGPT that began to eat into Google’s search dominance.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s attempts to boost Bing’s AI capabilities faltered, further emphasizing OpenAI’s ascendancy. OpenAI’s direct API revenue even surpassed Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI services, with ChatGPT becoming the preferred enterprise solution.