OpenAI and Microsoft revamp AI partnership revenue deal

2 min readUpdated April 27, 2026

OpenAI and Microsoft $MSFT announced a revamped partnership agreement on Monday that caps how much OpenAI must pay its longtime backer in revenue sharing, while ending Microsoft's exclusive right to sell OpenAI's AI models.

A source with knowledge of the deal told CNBC that the 20% rate OpenAI pays Microsoft will remain unchanged, though total payments will be capped, with the arrangement running through 2030. Microsoft, in turn, will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI. The companies said the payments will continue "independent of OpenAI's technology progress," meaning Microsoft no longer needs to assess whether OpenAI has achieved artificial general intelligence — a term for an AI system that rivals or exceeds human intelligence — before determining its obligations.

The revision resolves a tension that had been building between the two companies. According to Reuters, the Financial Times had previously reported that Microsoft was considering suing Amazon and OpenAI after a $50 billion cloud agreement raised concerns internally that it infringed on Microsoft's exclusivity rights. CNBC reported that Denise Dresser, who leads revenue at OpenAI, circulated an internal memo this month describing the original partnership terms as having constrained the company's ability to reach enterprise customers.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019. As part of OpenAI's restructuring into a for-profit business last year, Microsoft received a 27% ownership stake in the startup.

In February, a deal was reached under which Amazon committed to investing as much as $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a broad strategic alliance between the two companies. Under that arrangement, OpenAI's cloud commitment to AWS was set to grow by $100 billion beyond the existing $38 billion contract over eight years, and AWS was designated the sole outside cloud distributor for Frontier, OpenAI's enterprise platform.

"The greater predictability in the amended agreement strengthens our joint ability to build and operate AI platforms at scale while providing both companies the flexibility to pursue new opportunities," the companies said in a statement.

Microsoft stock was down about 1% on Monday.

OpenAI and Microsoft are renegotiating how much revenue the AI startup owes its backer

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