Microsoft might be all-in on OpenAI now, but back in 2018 thought it was just ‘motivated by a need to show how Al can crush humans’
A recently revealed document from Microsoft’s legal battle with Elon Musk and Sam Altman exposes the company’s conflicted relationship with OpenAI dating back to 2018. The disclosure shows Microsoft executives were deeply uncomfortable with OpenAI’s Dota 2 AI achievement, explicitly stating in internal communications: “We don’t want ‘machines beating humans’ and are not supportive of any push on this.”
The controversy centers on Elon Musk’s direct intervention to secure OpenAI favorable terms. Musk personally called Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to negotiate a substantial discount on Azure cloud computing access—a massive financial concession whose exact scale has only now been revealed through the legal documents.
This revelation highlights a striking paradox in Microsoft’s evolution. Today, the company is all-in on OpenAI with massive investments and integrated AI capabilities across its product portfolio. Yet in 2018, Microsoft’s leadership appeared hesitant about OpenAI’s core mission and publicly uncomfortable with demonstrations of AI superiority over humans—positioning that would eventually become central to OpenAI’s brand and strategy.
The documents emerged from the ongoing Musk versus Altman legal dispute, illuminating previously undisclosed behind-the-scenes negotiations that shaped one of technology’s most influential partnerships.