Microsoft Feared OpenAI Would Defect to Amazon

Court documents from the Musk v. Altman trial reveal Microsoft executives privately feared OpenAI could abandon their partnership and side with Amazon. The communications show senior leaders, including CEO Satya Nadella, were anxious about losing OpenAI to a rival cloud provider. The leaked messages offer a rare glimpse into the tense early negotiations between Microsoft and OpenAI, with executives worried the AI startup would walk away and publicly criticize Azure. The documents emerged as part of the ongoing legal battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman.