OpenAI spent seven years tied to Microsoft. It just cut the rope.
Liam Ortiz is a tech journalist who covers AI related big tech and breaking news at TheTweaks. Before joining TheTweaks he worked for almost four years in corporate and national tech news in different companies. Few are quick but Liam is quicker, he breaks news before anyone else and that makes her special. His passion is somewhere connected with profession as his hobby is watching documentary movies.
OpenAI and Microsoft announced on Monday that they had entered into a new agreement which was a game changer.
It was in 2019, when Microsoft had to spend millions of dollars and form a partnership with OpenAI, which restricted OpenAI to only use Microsoft technology and run chatbot on Microsoft Cloud Platform. Also, for becoming major investor into openAI, Microsoft had an objective to throttle the company as it should not have access to OpenAI’s technology.The agreement they announced was basic/mostly the deal they inked earlier this week has expired. More significantly, the brand-new terms nip a problem in the bud before it can germinate into a serious headache for OpenAI, one that could conceivably be called “The Amazon Question”.
The two companies announced in February that Amazon would like to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, which would be one of the biggest AI investments ever. However, there was a deal-blocking problem. The exclusive contract of OpenAI with Microsoft was standing right in the way for this deal to materialize.
Amazon announced Microsoft was not willing and was even contemplating taking a legal action against OpenAI to safeguard its rights. A major Issue was formed between two of the biggest names In the technology Industry and OpenAI was left standing In the middle.
After weeks of speculation Microsoft and OpenAI have finally unveiled a new deal, inked on 27 April, 2026, which among other things drastically alters the dynamics of the two organizations’ partnership. The window of exclusivity that Microsoft enjoyed concerning OpenAI’s technology has now been shut. Amazon and Google are free to collaborate with OpenAI henceforth should they wish, as can any cloud provider or indeed any firm. It is worth noting however that Microsoft’s rights are not completely extinguished; they will be the last licensee of OpenAI models (and derived products) –this license will run until 2032.
Regarding the financials, things are much the same. Microsoft will no longer be paying an OpenAI a revenue share. OpenAI still owes Microsoft a cut of its profits through 2030, but there’s now a cap on that obligation. Crucially, Microsoft is still a large investor in the company, so it should benefit from any future success and growth at OpenAI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also quickly chimed in to say OpenAI’s models will soon be available to customers on Amazon’s cloud computing service. Put more simply: this was Microsoft and OpenAI’s DTR moment, and now the AI research lab is free to see other people or companies, rather.
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