Microsoft's Sales Playbook Has a New Target: OpenAI and Anthropic Microsoft is reportedly training its sales force to talk down OpenAI and Anthropic, positioning its in-house AI models as cheaper, more reliable alternatives. The strategy reveals a critical shift in the AI platform wars -- and a warning for every founder building on top of a single provider. REDMOND, WA -- Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI. It integrated ChatGPT into Azure, Copilot, and every major product. And now, according to a report from TechCrunch, it is actively training its salespeople to tell customers why they should pick Microsoft's own models instead. The irony is not lost on industry observers. Microsoft is the single largest investor in OpenAI, holding a reported 49% stake. It is also the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI's workloads. But behind the scenes, Microsoft has been developing its own family of AI models -- Phi-4,