The End of an Exclusive Era
For nearly half a decade, OpenAI was shackled to Microsoft’s Azure cloud. That exclusive pact, forged in 2019, gave Microsoft privileged access to OpenAI’s cutting edge models and gave OpenAI a massive compute pipeline. But tensions had been building. When Amazon swooped in with a staggering $50 billion deal two months ago, Microsoft reportedly threatened legal action. Now, the two companies have quietly amended their agreement, stripping away the exclusivity clause. OpenAI can finally run its models on Amazon Bedrock and other clouds. The official line from OpenAI’s Chief Revenue Officer: “Interest in running OpenAI’s models through Amazon’s cloud has been frankly staggering.”
What the Fine Print Really Means
Don’t mistake this for a clean breakup. Microsoft still holds a license to OpenAI’s IP and models through 2032, and Azure remains the “primary cloud partner” as long as Microsoft can honor that commitment. OpenAI still pays Microsoft a 20 percent revenue share, but it now comes with a cap and runs only until 2030. Critically, that revenue share is now “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress,” a direct jab at the old AGI clause that would have terminated the deal if OpenAI ever achieved artificial general intelligence. Microsoft effectively hedged its bet: it keeps its privileged access and a cut of the revenue, while OpenAI gets the freedom to sell its wares wherever the money flows.
Source: Arstechnica
