Since Microsoft’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019, their exclusive partnership has stood as one of the strongest and most consequential in the AI industry. However, OpenAI and Microsoft have jointly announced an amended agreement, which now permits OpenAI to extend beyond Microsoft Azure and “serve all its products to customers across any cloud provider.”
The announcement clarifies that Microsoft will maintain a license for OpenAI’s IP and models through 2032, with Azure continuing as OpenAI's “primary cloud partner” during this period. Crucially, Microsoft’s license “will now be non-exclusive,” allowing OpenAI to offer its models through other major cloud providers moving forward.
Under the revised deal, OpenAI will continue to provide Microsoft with a 20 percent revenue share. Nevertheless, this total payment will now be subject to an unspecified cap and is only guaranteed until 2030. Significantly, this revenue share is now “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress,” a direct reference to the infamous “AGI clause” in the original partnership that would have terminated the exclusivity if OpenAI achieved the challenging benchmark of artificial general intelligence.