Microsoft drops OpenAI cloud exclusivity

Microsoft and OpenAI rewrote their partnership on April 27, ending Microsoft’s exclusive license to OpenAI technology and opening OpenAI’s products to any cloud. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) The new terms keep Microsoft as OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products will still ship first on Azure unless Microsoft cannot or chooses not to provide the needed capabilities. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) Microsoft’s license to OpenAI intellectual property now runs through 2032 on a non-exclusive basis. Microsoft also said it will no longer pay revenue share to OpenAI. (blogs.microsoft.com) (cnbc.com) OpenAI will keep paying Microsoft a revenue share through 2030 at the same percentage, CNBC reported, citing a person familiar with the agreement, and those payments are now subject to a total cap. CNBC reported that percentage is 20%. (cnbc.com) (blogs.microsoft.com) The rewrite also removes the old trigger tied to artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a term for software that matches or exceeds human abilities across many tasks. CNBC reported Microsoft no longer needs to decide how to respond if OpenAI says it has reached AGI. (cnbc.com) That changes the cloud math around OpenAI. Before this amendment, Microsoft’s Azure platform had the inside track on OpenAI products; now OpenAI can sell to customers that already run on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or other providers. (openai.com) (axios.com) Amazon moved immediately. On April 28, Amazon announced what it called a “major expansion” with OpenAI, one day after the Microsoft-OpenAI rewrite was disclosed. (apnews.com) Microsoft and OpenAI both said the partnership itself is not ending. Microsoft remains a major shareholder, and both companies said they will keep working together on datacenter capacity, custom silicon, and cybersecurity. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) For companies building on OpenAI, the practical change is that Azure is no longer the only road. The partnership now looks less like a lockup and more like a preferred-but-not-exclusive distribution deal. (blogs.microsoft.com) (axios.com)