Microsoft announced the third phase of a long-term partnership with OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence research firm, through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs. OpenAI is the startup behind ChatGPT, an AI tool that enables users to ask questions everyday language and delivers responses that appear as if humans wrote them. Some see ChatGPT has having an impact on the workforce solutions ecosystem.

“We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “In this next phase of our partnership, developers and organizations across industries will have access to the best AI infrastructure, models, and toolchain with Azure to build and run their applications.”

The agreement follows Microsoft’s previous investments in 2019 and 2021 and extends its ongoing collaboration across AI supercomputing and research. It also enables commercializing of the resulting advanced AI technologies.