OpenAI breaks out of exclusivity agreements in its partnership with Microsoft
OpenAI opens its partnership with Microsoft in the latest amendment to the great multi-year collaboration between the tech giants. The latest changes allow OpenAI to offer its latest AI models to other companies and through other cloud providers, stripping Microsoft of its exclusivity rights.
In a joint announcement posted on the OpenAI and Microsoft websites, Microsoft will remain OpenAI’s primary cloud partner with the latest products shipping first on Azure, but OpenAI is now allowed to use any cloud provider. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, posted on X that the company is “now able to make our products and services available across all clouds.”
Additionally, Microsoft will still have a license for OpenAI models and products until 2032, but the license will no longer be exclusive. On the enterprise side, Microsoft will no longer pay revenue shares to OpenAI, but OpenAI will continue to pay revenue shares to Microsoft until 2030, which will now be subject to a total cap.
The two companies have worked closely since announcing a multi-year partnership in 2019. Microsoft and OpenAI have gone through several phases for their collaboration, but the two released a joint statement in February of this year that still mentioned the exclusivity agreements. However, the latest update confirms that OpenAI may break exclusivity, with the companies saying these changes are aimed at “flexibility, certainty, and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI more broadly.”
