Between the in and out, the ownership of computing power resources in Norway has quietly changed hands.
OpenAI has officially abandoned its plan to lease computing power directly from Nscale, a UK AI cloud service provider, located in Norway. The resources that became available were quickly taken over by Microsoft - the latter will take over the remaining computing power of this data center.
What is interesting is that OpenAI has not completely withdrawn from this computing power game, but has taken a detour: according to OpenAI, the company is currently negotiating with Microsoft to plan to lease computing power resources from Microsoft. In other words, the same batch of computing power has shifted from "direct leasing" to "subleasing", with Microsoft in between.
This structural adjustment conveys several signals: OpenAI is becoming more cautious in its infrastructure layout, no longer obsessed with directly controlling computing power resources; while Microsoft continues to play the role of "rescuer", expanding its territory in the competition for computing power resources, and at the same time deepening OpenAI's reliance on its own infrastructure.
The relationship between the two companies has thus added another intriguing nuance - partners, yet also each other's most important leverage.
