OpenAI breaks free from Microsoft cloud exclusivity
28 Apr 2026, 01:04 PMThe new term will ease concerns nagging OpenAI after it had signed its up to $50-billion deal with Amazon earlier this year.
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OpenAI and Microsoft have reworked the terms of their partnership that will allow the AI startup to take its models to cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services.
"OpenAI can now serve all its products to customers across any cloud provider," it said in a blogpost.
The new term will ease concerns nagging OpenAI after it had signed its up to $50-billion deal with Amazon earlier this year.
The blogpost added that Microsoft will retain a license to OpenAI’s intellectual property for its models and products through 2032, but that this license will now be non-exclusive.
It also noted that Microsoft will no longer make revenue-sharing payments to OpenAI, while OpenAI will continue sharing revenue with Microsoft through 2030.
"While this amendment simplifies the partnership, the work we’re doing together remains ambitious. From scaling gigawatts of new datacenter capacity, to collaborating on next- generation silicon, to applying AI to advance cybersecurity, and more, we’re excited to keep partnering to advance and scale AI for people and organizations around the world," it said.
OpenAI had started has a non-profit organization. In 2019, Microsoft invested in OpenAI but as the AI startup grew at a fast clip and the products between the two companies competed with each other friction between the two cropped up frequently.
Last year, OpenAI completed its recapitalization, allowing the AI startup to form a for-profit corporation with a non-profit foundation. Microsoft will hold around 27% stake in the for-profit corporation.
Notably, Elon Musk, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, had been strongly resisting the formation of OpenAI's for-profit corp and has also made legal efforts to prevent it.
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