OpenAI and Microsoft have revised their partnership. OpenAI is coming out of it well: the company is freed from its exclusivity obligations and can pursue other opportunities.
Microsoft and OpenAI have renegotiated their partnership. The marriage seems de facto dissolved, though both parties appear to hope that an open relationship can save the day. OpenAI in particular stands to benefit from this new openness, as Microsoft was already eagerly getting into bed with other AI players.
The renegotiated agreement gives OpenAI the opportunity to market its technology more broadly. OpenAI was tied to an exclusivity clause: since an initial investment of about one billion dollars in OpenAI in 2019, Azure had been the exclusive host for OpenAI’s LLMs. In exchange, Microsoft received a share of OpenAI’s revenue.
Loyalty and Infidelity
The clause began to weigh on OpenAI itself. For instance, the company wanted to enter into a partnership with AWS. At the end of 2025, both parties signed an agreement worth 38 billion dollars, in which OpenAI would use the AI infrastructure of the world’s largest cloud provider. This creates momentum for OpenAI: after all, customers tend to use solutions offered within their preferred ecosystem.
This led to dissatisfaction: Microsoft reportedly even considered taking legal action, as the agreement violated the exclusivity obligation.
Conversely, there was never any mention of exclusivity for Microsoft. Microsoft was the first to use OpenAI’s models and was allowed to host them exclusively, but it could also partner with competitors. And it did: in the fall of 2025, Anthropic’s Claude appeared in Copilot.
With the new partnership, neither party is required to remain exclusively loyal to the other. This opens the door for seamless collaboration between OpenAI and AWS, and the broader integration of AWS’s LLMs into services from other cloud providers.
Revenue Sharing
Under the new agreement, Microsoft will continue to receive 20% of the revenue OpenAI earns from selling its own products (with a built-in cap), even when they run on competitors’ infrastructure. This is not a bad deal: building AI infrastructure is expensive, and Microsoft is now seeing the cash register ring thanks to the infrastructure investments of others.
Conversely, Microsoft paid OpenAI 20% of the revenue it generated from selling access to ChatGPT on its own servers. That obligation has now been removed.
Finally, a somewhat strange clause is disappearing: in the original agreement, Microsoft would lose access to OpenAI’s products if the company managed to develop so-called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). This is a form of AI that outperforms humans across the board (rather than in just a few specific tasks). That clause is being scrapped.
Microsoft remains intertwined with OpenAI, partly through a 135 billion dollar stake in the AI company. Nevertheless, the two companies are moving further apart.
Openness in the Search for More Revenue
Exclusivity does not seem to be the key to success in the current AI landscape. It is largely driven by major players investing heavily in each other. This creates immense value, which is then used to justify massive infrastructure investments. OpenAI is currently valued at 852 billion dollars. In this context, it is always interesting to note that OpenAI has never made a profit, and that Belgium’s current GDP is estimated at around 776.7 billion dollars.
OpenAI is currently valued at 852 billion dollars.
By moving away from exclusivity, OpenAI can more easily secure a place in the investment carousel. This should further benefit its valuation. With an eye on an IPO, the company also needs more revenue. Partnerships with other infrastructure providers like AWS are a realistic path toward that goal.