Microsoft loosens OpenAI tie

Microsoft and OpenAI rewrote their partnership Monday, ending Microsoft’s exclusive hold over OpenAI’s models and products while keeping Azure in the center. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) The new terms let OpenAI serve all of its products to customers on any cloud provider. Microsoft remains OpenAI’s “primary cloud partner,” and OpenAI products will ship first on Azure unless Microsoft cannot or chooses not to provide the needed capabilities. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) Microsoft will keep a license to OpenAI intellectual property through 2032, but that license is now nonexclusive. Microsoft also stops paying revenue share to OpenAI, while OpenAI keeps paying Microsoft through 2030 at the same percentage, subject to a total cap. (blogs.microsoft.com) (cnbc.com) CNBC reported that percentage is 20%, according to a person familiar with the agreement. That means Microsoft still gets a cut of sales such as ChatGPT subscriptions even after the exclusivity changes. (cnbc.com) This is a sharp change from the terms Microsoft and OpenAI publicly defended on February 27. At that point, Microsoft said it maintained an exclusive license to OpenAI intellectual property and that Azure remained the exclusive cloud for stateless OpenAI application programming interfaces, or APIs. (blogs.microsoft.com) It is also a reversal from the framework Microsoft described in January 2025. Then, Microsoft said OpenAI’s API was exclusive to Azure and that revenue sharing flowed both ways under a contract running through 2030. (blogs.microsoft.com) The rewrite also clears a path for OpenAI’s newer cloud deals. TechCrunch reported that the amended contract reduces the risk that Microsoft could challenge OpenAI’s up-to-$50 billion agreement with Amazon, which included a $15 billion initial investment and another $35 billion tied to conditions not publicly detailed. (techcrunch.com) That Amazon deal included work on “stateful runtime” technology for Amazon Web Services Bedrock, the service that hosts outside AI models. TechCrunch reported Amazon also won exclusive rights to offer OpenAI’s new agent-building tool, Frontier. (techcrunch.com) Microsoft and OpenAI both framed the change as simplification, not separation. Their statements said they will keep working together on data center capacity, next-generation silicon, cybersecurity, and other large-scale infrastructure projects. (blogs.microsoft.com) (openai.com) The practical result is narrower than a breakup and broader than a tweak. Azure keeps first position, but OpenAI now has written permission to sell everywhere, and Microsoft’s rights are defined by dates and caps instead of exclusivity. (blogs.microsoft.com) (cnbc.com)