Through the partnership, the companies will build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies and Microsoft will become OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider, according to the announcements. The companies said the technology they plan to build, artificial general intelligence (AGI), will be able to solve more complex problems that AI currently is capable of.

"Modern AI systems work well for the specific problem on which they've been trained, but getting AI systems to help address some of the hardest problems facing the world today will require generalization and deep mastery of multiple AI technologies," the companies wrote in a press release. "OpenAI and Microsoft's vision is for artificial general intelligence to work with people to help solve currently intractable multidisciplinary problems, including global challenges such as climate change, more personalized healthcare and education."

Rather than build its own product to make up the costs of building AI technologies, OpenAI said in its announcement that it decided to license some of its "pre-AGI technologies" and make Microsoft its preferred commercialization partner.