OpenAI reconsidered its relationship with partners: Microsoft lost its exclusivity

Microsoft, which is a major investor and longtime partner of AI startup OpenAI, has lost exclusive access to its models and products, the companies announced. This is a significant change that will allow the ChatGPT developer to sell its technology through competing cloud platforms including Amazon and Google, Reuters notes.

Microsoft will retain a license to OpenAI's intellectual property in the form of AI models and other products until 2032, but the right to sell them is now non-exclusive. This means that OpenAI will be able to offer its AI products to customers through any cloud vendors. That said, Microsoft remains a key partner and OpenAI's services will still primarily appear in Microsoft Azure, according to a statement released by the two companies.

The new agreement paves the way for the emergence of OpenAI AI models, for example, on the Amazon Web Services platform, Bloomberg expects. Amazon announced in late February that it would invest up to $50 billion in the startup as part of a strategic alliance. AWS is to become the exclusive third-party cloud service provider for Frontier, OpenAI's enterprise AI agent platform.

In exchange for giving up exclusivity, Microsoft will no longer pay a share of revenue from OpenAI products it sells through its cloud. At the same time, the startup itself will continue to pay the partner a percentage of its revenue until 2030 - at the same rate as before, but now with a cap on the maximum amount, the size of which the parties did not disclose.

OpenAI noted that the updated agreement should simplify cooperation and at the same time preserve opportunities for business development. The companies plan to continue joint investments - from expanding data center capacity to developing new chips and implementing AI solutions in cybersecurity.

Dependence on Microsoft is one of the key risks for OpenAI, the AI company warned in March this year in a private investor communication seen by CNBC. The tech corporation provides the startup with a significant portion of both funding and computing resources. OpenAI said that if the previous agreement continues, it could hit its business and financial position, and emphasized that its performance will depend on its ability to build relationships with other partners.

The history of cooperation between the two companies dates back to 2019: Microsoft invested in OpenAI three years before ChatGPT became public. The total amount of the corporation's investments by November 2025 reached $13 billion. As part of the restructuring of OpenAI into a commercial company last year, Microsoft was one of the leading negotiators and received a 27% stake.

That said, in its 2024 annual report, the software giant listed OpenAI as one of its competitors for the first time, recognizing that they are increasingly vying for the same users.

At the beginning of trading on April 27, quotations of Microsoft fell by 1.7%, but then recovered some of the losses and at the time of publication of this text decreased by 0.6%.

Investors perceived the new agreement with OpenAI as a loss of an important competitive advantage for the tech giant, Reuters explains. In recent years, Microsoft has become a major player in the AI race largely due to its early bet on OpenAI, which allowed it to quickly incorporate AI technologies into its products, the agency recalls.

However, Evercore analysts quoted by Bloomberg believe the agreement renegotiation is no longer a surprise to the market at this stage. "Microsoft has increasingly signaled a desire for a broader strategy with multiple models, while OpenAI has clear incentives to expand distribution to a broader market," Evercore said in a note.

Year-to-date, the corporation's shares are down 12.4%, while the S&P 500 index is up 4.6%.

Shares of Amazon rose slightly on the premarket after the message about the change in the terms of the agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI, but at the opening of trading went down by 1%. Since the beginning of the year, the company's securities have added 13.2%.

Alphabet's stock price jumped 2% on Monday and 11% since the beginning of the year.

The news is supplemented.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor