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Microsoft's early investments in OpenAI may seem like a no-brainer today, but Satya Nadella says the company and its founder, Bill Gates, saw the decision as a risk back then. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in 2019, less than four years after its founding. The company has since invested over $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker. But getting that first investment deal across the finish line wasn't that straightforward, Nadella said in an interview with "TPBN," a tech-focused YouTube show, on Tuesday. "Even at Microsoft, you kind of got to have to get a board approval to just go throw a billion dollars out there," Nadella said."But I must say it was not that hard to convince anyone that this is an important area and it's going to be risky." "In retrospect, who would have thought? I didn't put in a billion dollars saying, 'Oh yeah, this is going to be a hundred bagger,'" he continued. Nadella told TBPN that Gates was also wary when he wanted to invest in OpenAI back in 2019. "Remember this was a nonprofit, and I think Bill even said, 'Yeah, you're going to burn this billion dollars,'" Nadella said. "We kind of had a little bit of high risk tolerance, and we said we want to go and give this a shot," he added. Related stories Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Representatives for Nadella and Gates at Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. OpenAI has come a long way since Microsoft took its first bet on it. The AI startup became a household name in November 2022 after it released an early demo of ChatGPT. The chatbot went viral on social media and added a million users within five days. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said at the company's annual DevDay conference on October 6 that "more than 800 million people use ChatGPT every week." On Tuesday, OpenAI announced that it had completed its restructuring. Its nonprofit arm, OpenAI Foundation, will now oversee a new public benefit corporation, OpenAI Group PBC. With the changes, Microsoft holds a 27% stake, valued at about $135 billion, in OpenAI's for-profit business. Microsoft's shares are up nearly 29% year to date.
