TikTok Becomes One Of The Largest AI Cloud Customers In Microsoft

TikTok subscribes to the OpenAI model in Microsoft (photo: dock. unsplash)

JAKARTA As an exclusive cloud provider owned by OpenAI, Microsoft continues to encourage its cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) business. The sale of the OpenAI model is running smoothly and favorably. Many companies are buying OpenAI models through Microsoft, one of which is TikTok. The company is willing to pay a large nominal amount, even equivalent to a quarter of the revenue from Microsoft's cloud division only to use the OpenAI model. Based on The Information report, Microsoft's closest source who directly saw the company's internal financial documents said that TikTok paid nearly 20 million dollars (Rp324 billion) per month. This purchase was made last March. TikTok paid nearly 25 percent of Microsoft's total cloud business revenue. That way, TikTok is one of the largest AI cloud subscribers when viewed from the nominal they paid.

TikTok needs an OpenAI model because they don't have a big language model (LLM). The company had wanted to develop LLM using OpenAI technology secretly, but this had violated the rules set. All AI models issued by OpenAI should not be used to develop any models that could compete with the company's products and services. After investigating potential breaches, OpenAI suspended the ByteDance account. The parent of the TikTok company told CNN at the end of last year that they were using its model very limited. After OpenAI suspended accounts, they may look for alternatives and decide to buy OpenAI models via Microsoft.