News in the cooling-but-still-hot artificial intelligence (AI) sphere helped Microsoft (MSFT 2.09%) stock land in positive territory on Tuesday. The tech sector giant’s share price improved by more than 2% across the trading session thanks to that news, which came from a private company in which it’s heavily invested. By comparison, the S&P 500 index could only manage a 0.5% increase on the day.

New OpenAI product coming?

On Tuesday, tech industry website The Information, citing two unidentified people who have tested the goods, reported that OpenAI aims to release its latest product within the next two weeks. That product, called Strawberry, is a reasoning-focused set of artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities developed by the high-profile specialist in the technology.

OpenAI is the developer of ChatGPT, the very high-profile AI program that is something of an early flagship for the tech. Microsoft has committed to invest a reported $13 billion in the still privately held business; with that, it is essentially considered by many to be something of a benefactor for OpenAI. Microsoft has ambitious plans to integrate AI functionalities and services into most of its software products.

Neither Microsoft nor OpenAI has yet commented on the report, which was widely disseminated throughout tech media after publication.

The right company for the right time

Both OpenAI and Microsoft are impatient and vastly ambitious, so The Information’s report is entirely plausible. If proven accurate, it will surely be a plus for Microsoft, placing it on the cutting edge of an advanced technology. The trick will be to stay there; so far, it seems OpenAI management has been quite effective at setting the pace in the great AI race.