OpenAI and Microsoft amend partnership to allow OpenAI to offer its models through other cloud providers

OpenAI and Microsoft jointly announced an amended agreement that will allow OpenAI to 'serve all its products to customers across any cloud provider,' ending Microsoft's exclusive license to OpenAI's IP and models. Microsoft will retain a non-exclusive license through 2032, with Azure remaining the 'primary cloud partner' during that period.

OpenAI will continue to make 20 percent revenue share payments to Microsoft under the amended deal, but the total payment is now limited to an unspecified cap and guaranteed only through 2030. The revenue share is now 'independent of OpenAI's technology progress,' removing an 'AGI clause' from the original partnership that would have scrapped exclusivity if OpenAI achieved artificial general intelligence.

The partnership began with Microsoft's $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019 and had been 'one of the strongest and most consequential' in the AI industry.