Microsoft announced Monday that it will end its revenue-sharing arrangement with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in another sign that their once-inseparable partnership is loosening.
The collaboration originally saw OpenAI depend entirely on Microsoft’s cloud computing infrastructure to develop the technology that made ChatGPT a worldwide phenomenon. Microsoft used OpenAI’s innovations to power its own artificial intelligence tool, Copilot.
However, the relationship has changed as OpenAI has transformed from its original nonprofit structure into a profit-driven company preparing for a potential stock market debut. The San Francisco company has also diversified its cloud partnerships to include Amazon, Google, and Oracle alongside Microsoft.
OpenAI announced Monday that it will maintain its revenue-sharing payments to Microsoft until 2030.
Both companies confirmed that Microsoft will remain OpenAI’s main cloud computing provider, with OpenAI products launching first on Microsoft’s Azure platform “unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities.”
Investment analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities told investors Monday that this revised agreement “puts OpenAI on a strong path forward to going public through IPO given its clearer opportunity in the cloud environment while reducing significant barriers from its original partnership with Microsoft.”
Ives noted the arrangement also benefits Microsoft as it “looks to develop tech independence from OpenAI” while enhancing Copilot and forming partnerships with other AI companies like Anthropic, which creates the Claude chatbot.
