Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says he’d restart the company as an AI-centric firm if the opportunity presented itself.

What you need to know

In a recent interview with CNBC, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates indicated he’d start the company again as an AI-centric firm to rival OpenAI, Google, and more.
Gates admits it’s difficult to succeed in the AI landscape compared to software, making it paramount to identify a niche with little competition.
He also critiqued AI startups and their operations — “Oh, the way those things work is so stupid.”

As you may know, it’s been years since Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates left the company to focus on philanthropy. However, reports indicate that he’s still intimately involved in the tech giant’s affairs, and his advice is treated like the ‘gospel’. While speaking with CNBC earlier this week, Gates shared some interesting insights about how he’d start Microsoft again from scratch if he got another crack at the corporate world.

The billionaire indicated that if he could build Microsoft from the ground up, he’d hop onto the AI bandwagon with Microsoft as an AI-centric startup to rival key players in the AI landscape, including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and more. Gates further indicated that he’d attempt to build a rival AI firm if he received enough capital to give the key players in the AI game a run for their money.

However, the billionaire disclosed that, unlike most emerging AI startups, he’d attempt to identify a niche where AI could be useful. This would present the company with an infinite growth opportunity with little competition. Gates echoes similar sentiments in his upcoming Netflix docuseries What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates slated to premiere on September 18:

“To really stand out “as a small company, you have to pick something you’re going to do uniquely.”

Interestingly, the billionaire admits that it’d be impossible for his make-believe startup to scale Microsoft’s success in the category. However, he claims AI will be transformative enough for emerging tech startups to explore the landscape and identify their niche.

Gates used the opportunity to share his impressive success while calling the shots at Microsoft. He admits his blatant push to get PCs to every home and the ability to get engineers to build software contributed to the tech giant’s success.

Gates admits his belief in software placed him in a unique position that contributed to Microsoft’s significant success in the category — Windows continues to dominate the desktop market share. However, the billionaire doesn’t think this would work in AI. “Just believing in AI, that’s not very unique. So I would have to develop some unique view of how you design AI systems — something that other people didn’t get,” the billionaire added.

Finally, Gates admits it is difficult to establish a clear path to success in AI. He indicated that if he could go back to his early 20s as an entrepreneur, he hoped his brain could establish a pattern about how AI startups operate and say, “Oh, the way those things work is so stupid.”

Gates acknowledges the difficulty: If he were a 20-year-old entrepreneur again, he says, he’d have to hope that his “young brain” would recognize something about the way other companies approached AI and say, “Oh, the way those things work is so stupid.” Gates encourages the youth to continue exploring the relatively new landscape while referring to it as the frontier.

A clear path to success in AI is blurry at best

(Image credit: Future)
In the past few months, the AI landscape has undergone major shifts, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang indicating that we’re on the verge of the next phase of AI with robotics and self-driving cars at the forefront.

However, investors recently placed Microsoft under fire after its earnings call. The investors questioned Microsoft’s exorbitant spending on AI projects with little returns to show, further claiming that it’s difficult to establish a clear path to success.

In the same breath, OpenAI is reportedly on the cusp of bankruptcy within the next 12 months, with projections of $5 billion in losses. Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Apple will reportedly participate in another round of funding for the ChatGPT maker to extend its lifeline, pushing its market valuation well beyond $150 billion.

This happens amid reports that 30% of AI projects will be abandoned by 2025 after proof of concept.