Microsoft’s absence from OpenAI’s Stargate announcement follows months of tension between the companies and signals a new era in which the longtime partners will be less reliant on each other. At a White House press conference,

When President Donald Trump joined tech executives on Tuesday to tout a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence project led in part by OpenAI, one question sprang to mind: Where’s Microsoft Corp.?

Microsoft will no longer be the exclusive provider of new cloud computing capacity to OpenAI — a new twist in their relationship that clears the way for OpenAI to work with Oracle and others on the $500 billion Stargate AI project announced by the companies Tuesday with President Trump at the White House.