Satya Nadella’s OpenAI Concerns, Google’s Next AI Model, The AI Monet Prank

**Alex Kantrowitz** (0:00)
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's emails and text messages reveal a serious concern with his OpenAI partnership.
Google has a new AI model coming. Is it gonna compete with Codex and Claude Code?
And is this Monet AI? That's coming up on a Big Technology Podcast Friday edition right after this. This episode is brought to you by True Diagnostic. I've been trying to get more intentional about my health lately. Not just how I feel day to day, but what's actually going on under the hood. That's why I checked out True Diagnostic. They offer at-home tests that measure your biological age, not just how old you are, but how your body is aging on a cellular level. Their true age test looks at things like your pace of aging, organ system health, and even risk factors tied to lifestyle giving you real data to act on. What I like is that it's not guesswork. You can track changes over time and see how things like sleep, diet or exercise are actually impacting your body. And taking the tests at home was so easy. If you're serious about optimizing your health and longevity, this is a really powerful tool. Right now Big Technology Podcast listeners can get 20% off at truediagnostic.com using code BIGTECH at checkout. That's truediagnostic.com and use BIGTECH for 20% off today. Choose TrueAge, TrueHealth or the Combo Kit as a one-time purchase or subscription. We've all heard the stat. 95% of AI initiatives fail. It's not because the technology isn't ready. It's because you don't have the right process or the right partner. Meet Abord. Abord is your partner for AI Transformation, which means they listen, use their very own powerful software tools and deliver exactly what your company needs to thrive in the age of AI. Working with big and small clients, Abord always delivers in weeks, not months. Your AI revolution is just beginning. Visit abord.com to get your AI rollout right. Welcome to Big Technology Podcast Friday Edition, where we break down the news in our traditional coolheaded and nuanced format. We have a great show for you today. We're going to go deep into the documents coming out of the Musk vs. Altman trial. In specific, looking at Satya Nadella voicing his concerns about the OpenAI partnership in a very revealing email. We're also going to talk about Google's forthcoming AI model that the company is planning to reveal at Google IO next week. And we will determine whether this Monet is AI or not and how people react depending on the originator of the art, human or machine. Joining us as always on Fridays to do it is Ranjan Roy of Margins. Ranjan, great to see you.

**Ranjan Roy** (2:29)
Good to see you, Alex. I feel this might be a Satya week here at Big Technology.

**Alex Kantrowitz** (2:35)
It sure is. Because we'll see what happens with this case with Musk and Altman and whether the verdict is consequential or not. But certainly the documents coming out of the case are consequential. And give us a great view into the strategy around these companies' partnerships and where the value is found along the chain in the AI ecosystem. So last week we talked a little bit about the interpersonal dynamics. Ranjan and I read this text thread between Mir and Maradi and Sam Altman.
This week we'll just go right into the business side of things. Because Satya, in a way that you rarely see from a leader of a Silicon Valley company, basically spells out the exact dynamics of his partnership with OpenAI and why he was a little bit dissatisfied with it. Here's what he says in an email. Here's what Satya says, Overall, I want us to own the Silicon, Infra, Foundational Model IP and Know-How. Right now, we are a very thin layer on top of NVIDIA and the IP is with OpenAI and we have a P&L that will lose $4 billion next year. I have not seen anything like this in my 30 years in our industry. I can justify it all by saying that OpenAI has smart people and NVIDIA has lock-in, etc. But if we are going to spend this kind of money and not have control of destiny, it makes no sense. Better to be an investor and not take all this execution risk.
I have thought through this email over the course of the week since it's been revealed. I mean, it's fascinating that Nadella is very clear that his company does not have the IP. And so therefore, what they are is this layer on top of NVIDIA that is effectively serving the compute to people using IP he doesn't own, which is the other side of the praise he's been getting, right? The praise he had been getting by being the company that had locked down OpenAI and invested in them and had right to their IP. So what did you think of the fact that Satya is framing this this way internally?