OpenAI and Microsoft have rewritten the terms of their partnership, ending Microsoft's exclusive access to OpenAI's models and freeing the ChatGPT maker to sell its products through rival cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Under the amended agreement announced on Monday, OpenAI will continue to pay Microsoft a revenue share of 20%, according to a person familiar with the terms, but those payments will now be subject to a total cap and will end in 2030 regardless of whether OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence (AGI).
The removal of the AGI clause is significant.
Under the previous arrangement, if OpenAI determined it had reached AGI, Microsoft's licence to its technology would have been automatically revoked, a provision that created uncertainty for both companies and their customers.
That trigger has been eliminated entirely.
Microsoft retains a licence to OpenAI's model intellectual property through 2032, but the licence is no longer exclusive, meaning OpenAI can now offer the same models and products to competing cloud providers.
In exchange for surrendering exclusivity, Microsoft will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI on products it resells through Azure.
Microsoft shares fell roughly 2% on the news.
Azure will remain OpenAI's primary cloud platform and will continue to receive first access to new products unless Microsoft opts not to support them, but the practical effect is that OpenAI is now a multi-cloud company for the first time.
Denise Dresser, OpenAI's chief revenue officer, said in a memo earlier this month that the existing partnership had "limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are."
The revision follows a series of moves by OpenAI to diversify its infrastructure and commercial relationships.
The company has struck an expanded deal with AWS that builds on an existing $38 billion agreement and includes up to $50 billion in potential investment from Amazon, and has signed capacity agreements with Google Cloud for next-generation TPU access.
Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and remains a shareholder in the company, which completed its conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure last year and is now exploring a potential initial public offering that could value it at up to $1 trillion.
The deal gives both sides more room to manoeuvre.
OpenAI gains the flexibility to pursue enterprise customers that run on AWS or Google Cloud without requiring them to migrate to Azure, while Microsoft reduces its financial exposure to a partner whose revenue share payments were set to grow rapidly alongside OpenAI's surging commercial trajectory.
OpenAI's annualised revenue run rate reached $30 billion this month, up from roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025.
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The capped revenue share may limit the total Microsoft receives from the partnership over time, but it also removes the risk that Microsoft would be forced to pay an ever-growing share back to OpenAI as the ChatGPT maker scales.
The restructured deal gives both companies clearer commercial boundaries while preserving a relationship that remains strategically important to each side, even as OpenAI's growing independence makes the partnership increasingly one of convenience rather than dependence.
The recap
- OpenAI and Microsoft amend partnership to cap revenue share.
- OpenAI will pay Microsoft 20% revenue share.
- Revenue share payments continue through 2030; Microsoft license until 2032.
