Nadella: Microsoft refused OpenAI requests for dedicated multi-gigawatt compute clusters
Satya Nadella · All things AI w @altcap @sama & @satyanadella. A Halloween Special. 🎃🔥BG2 w/ Brad Gerstner · Bg2 Pod · Oct 31, 2025 · at 43:39
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explains why Microsoft permitted OpenAI to contract other cloud providers rather than building dedicated, single-purpose mega-clusters for them.
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“Sometimes you may have to say no to some of the demand, including some of the open AI demand, right? Because sometimes, you know, Sam may say, hey, build me a dedicated, you know, big, you know, whatever, multi-gigawatt data center in one location for training. Makes sense from an open AI perspective. Doesn't make sense from a long-term infrastructure build out for Azure. And that's where I thought they did the right thing to give them flexibility to go procure that from others while maintaining, again, a significant book of business from open AI, but more importantly, giving ourselves the flexibility with other customers, our own one P.”
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