As the partnership between Microsoft (MS) and OpenAI grows looser, a report said MS is looking to acquire a new artificial intelligence (AI) startup.
Reuters reported on Nov. 13, citing multiple sources, that MS is in talks to acquire Inception, a startup founded by researchers from Stanford.
Inception, founded in 2024, is a corporations that applies "diffusion" technology, mainly used for image generation, to generate text. Unlike typical AI, which generates one token at a time, diffusion technology generates multiple tokens simultaneously. It is drawing attention as a technology that significantly speeds up AI responses.
Inception is said to be seeking an acquisition price of more than $1 billion (about 1.5 trillion won), and SpaceX is also reportedly exploring an acquisition of Inception. MS previously considered acquiring the AI coding startup "Cursor," but reportedly pulled back over concerns it would not avoid antitrust scrutiny because it operates a similar service, GitHub Copilot. SpaceX recently announced a deal to acquire Cursor.
On Oct. 27, MS and OpenAI said they had amended their existing agreement to convert MS's exclusive license to use AI models into a nonexclusive license. OpenAI, a day after ending the exclusive deal, agreed to supply its AI models to Amazon Web Services (AWS).