The Windsurf acquisition and future of Copilot are at the center of a growing rift between the longtime AI collaborators.

Microsoft, a major investor since 2019, supports OpenAI through Azure and powers tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot with its models. However, tensions between OpenAI and Microsoft have been simmering in recent months, with occasional public clashes.

Microsoft and OpenAI are engaged in tense negotiations that could unravel one of the most important alliances in AI and fundamentally reorder the industry. Why it matters: Microsoft has injected billions of dollars in OpenAI and made it a cornerstone of its AI strategy,