OpenAI restructures deal so Microsoft stops receiving OpenAI revenue share through 2030

OpenAI and Microsoft rewrote their partnership on April 27, ending Microsoft’s revenue-share payments to OpenAI and loosening Microsoft’s exclusive grip on OpenAI technology. (microsoft.com) (cnbc.com) Microsoft said its license to OpenAI intellectual property for models and products now runs through 2032 on a non-exclusive basis. OpenAI said it can serve all of its products to customers across any cloud provider. (microsoft.com) The money flows changed too. OpenAI will keep paying Microsoft a revenue share through 2030, but Microsoft’s payments to OpenAI stop, and CNBC reported OpenAI’s share remains 20% under the amended deal. (microsoft.com) (cnbc.com) The cap matters because the old structure had revenue sharing running both ways. In January 2025, Microsoft said the partnership still included mutual revenue sharing, exclusive access to OpenAI intellectual property, and Azure exclusivity for the OpenAI application programming interface. (microsoft.com) The cloud terms changed just as sharply. Microsoft said it remains OpenAI’s primary cloud partner and OpenAI products will ship first on Azure unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the required capabilities. (microsoft.com) That leaves Azure with first-launch status, but not a lock on distribution. CNBC reported OpenAI can now sell products through providers including Amazon Web Services and Google, after OpenAI revenue chief Denise Dresser said the old arrangement had limited enterprise sales. (cnbc.com) Microsoft also said the new revenue-share terms continue through 2030 “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress.” CNBC reported that removes the need for Microsoft to decide how to respond if OpenAI declares it has reached artificial general intelligence, or AGI. (microsoft.com) (cnbc.com) The companies are still tied together in other ways. Microsoft said it remains a major shareholder, and in January 2025 it said the contract itself runs through 2030. (microsoft.com 1) (microsoft.com 2) For now, the revised deal turns Microsoft from OpenAI’s exclusive channel into its first-launch cloud partner, while preserving a revenue stream and IP access deep into the next decade. (microsoft.com) (cnbc.com)