Microsoft has been one of OpenAI’s key partners for many years. It invested $1 billion in the startup at a stage when it was not widely known and actively supported its further development. But in the past two years, relationships between the partners have become more complicated, primarily because OpenAI has sought independence. As a result, at the end of April 2026, the two companies changed the terms of cooperation. Meduza tells us what the two companies want and what opportunities they have now.
In 2019, Microsoft Announcewhich invested $1 billion in OpenAI, an artificial intelligence startup that was not known to a wide audience at the time. The agreement stipulates that the American IT giant will obtain the status of an exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI products, meaning that all key technologies will be hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
Additionally, Microsoft has become the partner of choice to bring OpenAI products to market. This means that if AI technology becomes a commercial product, a company has the right to be the first to use, implement and sell it.
Ultimately, this collaboration will lead to the creation of artificial general intelligence (). This is exactly the goal puts The OpenAI founders had it in front of them when they created the company in 2015. For the first few years, the partnership was mutually beneficial: developers got investment and computing resources, and Microsoft got priority access to advanced AI models and the ability to integrate them into its products.
However, as the industry matures and new players enter the so-called AI race (for example, Anthropic with its Claude family of large language models), this agreement increasingly affects OpenAI. The company sought to reduce its dependence on one partner, expand cooperation with other companies, and attract additional investments.
Over the past few years, OpenAI has been in discussions with Microsoft to renegotiate the terms of the agreement. The Financial Times reported, citing sources, about the next round of negotiations. I mentioned In May 2025. Shortly before that, OpenAI abandoned its plans to transform into a commercial company, but nevertheless took a step towards its independence and implemented a restructuring process that will allow it to implement it in the future.
April 27, 2026 Companies Announce About changes to the agreement:
- Microsoft will remain OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, and the company’s AI products will appear primarily on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. However, OpenAI can now use the services of other providers.
- Microsoft’s license to OpenAI’s intellectual property will continue until 2032, but it will no longer be exclusive.
- Microsoft will no longer pay OpenAI a share of its revenue, but OpenAI will have to share the revenue through 2030. Percentage discounts, but there will be a limit on the total amount of payments (no specific limit has been set).
- Microsoft will continue to be directly involved in OpenAI’s development as one of the largest investors.
The new agreement will primarily benefit OpenAI, which will be able to collaborate with other cloud service providers. First of all, we are talking about Amazon, which is a partnership agreement with it That’s it Back in February. This caused dissatisfaction on the part of Microsoft. Financial Times I mentionedThe IT giant even planned to defend its interests in court. Now nothing stands in the way of partnering with Amazon.
next to, Notes Bloomberg, the new agreement sets specific terms for the duration of payments from OpenAI. Previously, they had to keep going until the startup reached AGI. It is interesting that companies came with Own internal definition of this term. In 2023, the two parties agreed that OpenAI will be considered to have achieved AGI when the AI systems it develops can generate revenues of more than $100 billion.
Meanwhile, OpenAI itself in general Didn’t count on it It becomes profitable at least until 2029. This means that OpenAI’s dependence on Microsoft and the need to comply with unfavorable agreement terms could continue for many years to come.
For Microsoft, changes to the terms of the partnership are also beneficial, Notes Published by TechCrunch. The company is no longer required to share revenue, but will continue to receive payments from OpenAI. It’s difficult to say exactly how much Microsoft could earn. But the publication’s journalists point out that we are talking about billions of dollars.
The number mentioned in Microsoft’s financial report for the previous quarter is used as a rough guide. Then the company I mentionedInvestments in OpenAI brought it approximately $7.6 billion in net profits.
The continued growth of OpenAI through agreements with other partners will also benefit Microsoft belongs Approximately 27 percent stake in the company’s commercial division. Finally, TechCrunch notes that losing exclusive rights will not significantly impact the future of Microsoft, which is already actively collaborating with other AI companies. Including with Anthropic, OpenAI’s direct competitor, which is also He provides Your cloud.
One thing that remains unclear is how much the change in contract terms brought OpenAI closer to entering the exchange. Microsoft’s strong influence over the company’s operations was an important (though not the main) obstacle to this. Now the analysts He thinksThat IPO was just a matter of time.
At the same time, He writes The Wall Street Journal quoted its sources as saying that some OpenAI executives (except for CEO Sam Altman) are not yet sure that the company is fully ready for this. In particular, CFO Sarah Fryer recently warned the board that OpenAI does not yet meet the stringent reporting requirements required of public companies.
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal wrote that OpenAI failed in its own plan to attract new users and revenue. As a result, some executives, including Fryer, became concerned about whether the company would be able to pay for all of its computing power contracts.
OpenAI has many of these contracts. Only for less than 2025 that That’s it Agreements worth a total of about $1 trillion. At the same time profit OpenAI for the first half of the year – only 4.3 billion.
All this is happening in the background trialwhich was started by OpenAI member Elon Musk. He claims in his lawsuit that the company deviated from its original mission, which was to develop artificial intelligence for the benefit of all humanity. Instead, OpenAI, under Sam Altman’s leadership, focused on making a profit. Judging by a New Yorker investigation, this is indeed the case.
It seems that the task of creating general artificial intelligence (however defined) has ceased to be core to OpenAI lately. A few days ago companies published A new version of the document is called “Our Principles.” AGI is mentioned only twice, I noticed Business Insider publication. Six years ago there were six times more signals.
All these financial and legal difficulties led to OpenAI having to… review Development strategy to maintain a leading position in the industry. This includes abandoning large projects that do not generate much profit but require enormous resources. Like, for example, the company’s Sora AI video generator closed In March of this year.
Currently, OpenAI does not appear to be a reliable and stable partner in the AI space. It is possible that Microsoft’s decision to make certain concessions will turn out to be right in the end. By reducing its reliance on a single AI developer, it can avoid unnecessary disruption in the long term.