OpenAI Wants to Halve Revenue Sharing to Microsoft

A new report has revealed that OpenAI is considering reducing its revenue share to Microsoft from 20% to 10% this decade. The move comes after CEO Sam Altman abandoned plans to restructure OpenAI completely into a for-profit company, instead retaining control of the original nonprofit.

Microsoft is currently OpenAI's largest investor, with a $13.5 billion investment. Under the current partnership agreement, OpenAI is required to share 20% of its revenue with Microsoft until 2030. However, OpenAI is looking to change its financial structure, which is expected to reduce this share to just 10%, while also renegotiating the terms of its partnership with Microsoft.

A major driver of this change was OpenAI's announcement of its $500 billion 'Stargate' project, which aims to build a massive network of AI data centers in the U.S. This project has caused Microsoft to lose its 'exclusive cloud provider' status to OpenAI, although it still retains priority in the partnership.

Microsoft responded by amending some terms of the contract to protect its investment, but pledged that key terms would remain in place until 2030. However, the strategic relationship between the two sides is showing signs of fraying.

There have been signs recently that Microsoft is reducing its reliance on OpenAI. They are said to be developing internal AI models, testing DeepSeek in Copilot, and no longer supporting the ChatGPT training infrastructure as before. In addition, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also predicted that Microsoft will soon stop using OpenAI technology.

However, OpenAI said it is still working closely with Microsoft and will soon finalize restructuring agreements. CEO Sam Altman also said the company is no longer constrained by computing power, implying that it can independently develop advanced AI technology without relying heavily on Microsoft.

Micah Soto

Update 26 May 2025