Microsoft was worried OpenAI would run off to Amazon and 'shit-talk' Azure

"“Probably something like $300 million at Azure list prices,” according to Altman. This initially spooked some executives inside Microsoft. “For those numbers to make sense we'd have to be generating significant incremental revenue directly due to the deal ($500 million+) that couldn't be gained in a more efficient way,” said Jason Zander, who was Microsoft's Azure chief at the time, in an August 2017 email to Nadella."

"Altman came back with an alternative proposal several months later to “create a partnership with Xbox around gaming, and an open offer to share their technology and IP in exchange for expanded sponsorship for their Dota research,” according to Brett Tanzer, now VP of Azure solutions and ecosystem. The Xbox team was interested in “exploring collaboration opportunities,” but couldn't commit to the research costs by itself."

"Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott then weighed in on the debate over whether to give OpenAI more Azure credits for its research in an email to Nadella in January 2018. He wasn't sure what Microsoft was “going to get out of [the deal]” and wasn't sure how the Dota efforts would benefit the company."

"Court documents from the ongoing Musk v. Altman trial have provided a rare look at the communications between Microsoft's top executives about investing in OpenAI and fears the AI startup could “storm off to Amazon” and “shit-talk” Microsoft."

OpenAI sought expanded funding and compute to advance AI research beyond existing Azure credits used for a Dota 2 project. After OpenAI demonstrated a bot beating a Dota 2 professional in 2017, Sam Altman proposed a much larger partnership with Microsoft, estimating about $300 million in Azure costs at list prices. Some Microsoft executives questioned whether the deal would generate sufficient incremental revenue to justify the expense. Altman later proposed a partnership involving Xbox gaming, with an open offer to share technology and IP in exchange for expanded sponsorship for Dota research. Microsoft teams showed interest in collaboration but could not commit to the research costs alone. Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott raised concerns about what Microsoft would gain and how the Dota work would benefit the company.

Read at The Verge