Almost guaranteed this is it. It’s only a matter of time before Microsoft swallows OpenAI whole. And at that point there will be several competing products like Dynamics Copilot, etc. The lines are blurring, but I probably think the comment was fair and probably needs the right context: the research team within OpenAI will unlikely compete head to head with developers building apps on top of it, but why would it ever restrict itself to such a limitation? It doesn’t make any sense. That said, it means they will focus on their platform and have probably no line of sight to any apps they would build.
Any percent control can be 100% control if OpenAI relies on Microsoft for something critical like compute, and is contractually bound to not go to anyone else for compute. If MS can threaten to take their toys and go home, they can get anything they want.
That is an excellent point, but I have to think that MS wouldn't want OpenAI to walk to one of the other big cloud compute shops at the end of a contract. So, not quite 100% control. But that goes for the 49% limit too.