OpenAI's board has not yet received a formal bid from an Elon Musk-led consortium, although a lawyer for the billionaire said the offer had been sent to OpenAI's outside counsel. A day after Musk publicized a bid to offer $97.

The tech mogul is unlikely to win. But his goal may be more about making life difficult for the A.I. start-up and its leader, Sam Altman.

The best outcome for Microsoft would be to use this moment to double-down on its own homegrown AI initiatives, while making sure it can still benefit from — but not depend on — OpenAI's technologies.