Microsoft is backing up the money truck and pouring billions into ChatGPT creator OpenAI

• Microsoft is making a 'multi-billion dollar investment' in OpenAI.
• It put in $1 billion into the ChatGPT maker in 2019, and was reportedly planning a $10 billion investment.

Microsoft is backing up the money truck for the creator of ChatGPT.

OpenAI, the company behind the popular large language model bot ChatGPT, is getting billions and a longer term boost from Microsoft.

The ChatGPT maker said on Monday that the companies are "extending our partnership," and that the "multibillion dollar" investment follows Microsoft's support of the company since 2019, when it invested $1 billion into the AI company.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

OpenAI said in a post that the investment "will allow us to continue our independent research and develop AI that is increasingly safe, useful, and powerful."

Microsoft, whose shares were trading up slightly following the news, has been planning to invest some $10 billion into OpenAI in a deal that would direct a chunk of the startup's profits to the tech giant, according to a Semafor report earlier this month. OpenAI did not disclose more specifics of the investment.

OpenAI has described itself as a "capped-profit" company, meant to help raise funding by giving investors a piece of the profits, according to the company. OpenAI is also working on getting users to pay for certain ChatGPT features.

"This structure allows us to raise the capital we need to fulfill our mission without sacrificing our core beliefs about broadly sharing benefits and the need to prioritize safety," the company said.

OpenAI's ChatGPT bot became wildly popular since it became available for public use in late November, with users posting excerpts of their conversations asking it to do all kinds of things from suggesting recipes to writing poems.

It also sparked discourse around the degree to which AI bots can replace human writing, and, along with it, concerns about how to detect ChatGPT-aided plagiarism.

Microsoft's major investment in the company comes on the heels of chief executive officer Satya Nadella's announcement that it plans to lay off 10,000 employees this year, joining the wave of big tech layoffs in 2023.