Is Subex really partnering with Microsoft?

Abraham George Market Musings

There are two international companies that I have followed very closely. One is Amazon and the other is Microsoft. I have written about both companies in the past and will continue to do in the future. 

Microsoft is an amazing story and enigmatic too. Its scrappy yet ambitious beginnings, its cutthroat tactics to undercut competitors and gain market share, its success, and its run into regulatory and anti-trust issues. Through all this, it has remained within the top ten of all companies in the world from its 40 or more years of history and it is currently the #1 stock in terms of market cap. No other company has done that for such a long time in modern times. To have that sort of perseverance and resilience is really something. It doesn’t happen by accident. When you keep up that sort of momentum and leadership, it comes at some cost, compromise and some arm twisting at times. 

GPT-3 is a terrific artificial intelligence technology created by OpenAI. Specifically, it is a language processor capable of understanding our words and generating output. In its simplest form, it can complete sentences as we type. I am sure users of Office 360 have experienced this feature. 

Last September, somehow Microsoft extracted an exclusive license from OpenAI for GPT-3. At that time it wasn’t clear what Microsoft’s intentions were with the exclusive license but now it is becoming clearer. Microsoft recently announced that it is launching a new Azure  Open Al service to provide access to GPT-3 on an invitation-only basis. Microsoft will decide who can be granted access to GPT-3. Approvals will be made on a case-by-case basis and Microsoft will continue to monitor if their usage is up to their satisfaction. Microsoft has got exclusive master licensee rights from OpenAI and they are turning around to sublicense it to others. 

Microsoft is basically forcing others to use Azure Cloud services and they are drawing guidelines as to who and how they can use it. Azure has been falling behind Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. So it is understandable that Microsoft is using GPT-3 to shore up their Azure business. Microsoft’s engagement with Tanla platforms for Tanla’s international expansion is also a measure to catch up with AWS on cloud volume and market share. 

But Microsoft’s record on its security front has not been that good. Not that long ago, Microsoft Exchange server was hacked. It turned out to be one of the biggest hacks of all time. In the process, it exposed an unbelievable number of private and public networks. To top it up, previous July, Microsoft’s LinkedIn platform had a data breach that compromised the data of more than 90% of its users. 

So, where is this all leading to? Recently, I noted a Microsoft Twitter handle announcing that Microsoft Sentinel has an integration with Sectrio (a Subex Company) to provide cyber threat intelligence data. Is Subex partnering with Microsoft via Sectrio? If so, there have been no official announcements from Subex Management as yet.  

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Abraham George is a seasoned investment manager with more than 40 years of experience in trading & investment and multi-billion dollar portfolio management spanning diverse environments like banks (HSBC, ADCB), sovereign wealth fund (ADIA), a royal family office and a hedge fund. Currently, he is setting up a hedge fund where foreign citizens can invest in Indian growth stocks like Tanla operating in hyper-growth markets like CPaaS.