Author: Sam Bourgi, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
Microsoft engineers are increasing infrastructure capacity in preparation for the latest version of OpenAI's large language model, the first of which may be implemented at the end of February.
Sources close to Microsoft revealed to The Verge's Tom Warren that the software giant plans to launch OpenAI's latest GPT-4.5 as early as next week.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently revealed that the company plans to "release GPT-4.5 next time", but did not provide a specific date.
Although GPT-4.5 is described as a "mid-term" update, OpenAI has reportedly been training its models using synthetic data, which, according to IBM, can overcome data scarcity issues when training and fine-tuning AI models.
In addition to the expected imminent release of GPT-4.5, The Verge's sources also claim that Microsoft expects to receive the more powerful GPT-5 by the end of May.
Altman described GPT-5 as “a system that integrates many of our technologies, including o3,” referring to OpenAI’s latest inference model. On January 31, the company released a smaller version of the o3 model called o3-mini.
Microsoft currently hosts OpenAI’s models on its Azure platform. However, Microsoft clarified that the service does not interact with any tools operated by OpenAI, including ChatGPT.
Microsoft and OpenAI expanded their partnership last month through Stargate, U.S. President Donald Trump’s $500 billion AI venture.
Microsoft said OpenAI has also made “a new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training.”
Since its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT has set a record as the fastest-growing consumer software platform in the world. According to Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, As of February 2025, it has accumulated approximately 400 million weekly active users, an increase of 33% in less than three months.
This staggering growth has enabled OpenAI to seek funding at a $340 billion valuation, according to CNBC.
However, competition is heating up with the recent launch of DeepSeek, an open-source AI model originating from China that cost a fraction of what ChatGPT did to develop.
The launch of DeepSeek threatens the prevailing paradigm that OpenAI and the United States will continue to dominate the AI market.
Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen called DeepSeek "AI's Sputnik moment," referring to society's realization that it needed to catch up with rapid technological developments elsewhere in the world.
Tech stocks, Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market plunged after DeepSeek's release, and the market certainly reacted to the collective awe.
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