OpenAI and Microsoft said they have revamped their longtime agreement to give OpenAI more flexibility on working with other cloud providers, while giving more certainty to Microsoft on its ongoing revenue-sharing agreement with the AI start-up.
The new agreement will allow OpenAI to serve “all of its products” through any cloud provider, including Amazon Web Services, removing what had been a key sticking point as OpenAI has sought to expand its enterprise business.
Microsoft had considered taking legal action over a $50 billion (£34bn) agreement between OpenAI and Amazon, saying it breached the terms of OpenAI’s cloud agreement with the Windows developer, the Financial Times reported in March.
Cloud deals
The new deal resolves this dispute.
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said OpenAI’s models would be made available directly to developers on AWS through its Bedrock service “in the coming weeks”.
The arrangement will give developers “even more choice to pick the right model for the right job”, Jassy said in a statement.
Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud provider, and retains the right to offer OpenAI products first on Azure, unless it decides otherwise. The company retains a licence to OpenAI’s intellectual property on AI models through 2032, but the licence will no longer be exclusive.
The deal also alters the revenue-sharing arrangement between Microsoft and OpenAI.
Revenue-sharing
OpenAI will continue to pay Microsoft the same percentage of its paid revenue, which is understood to be 20 percent, through 2030, but the total payout will now be subject to an undisclosed cap.
OpenAI has dropped a prior provision that allowed it to stop making the payments if it decided its technology had achieved “artificial general intelligence”, referring to matching or exceeding human intelligence, removing a point of ambiguity for Microsoft.
Previously, when subscribers paid for OpenAI models through Azure, Microsoft paid OpenAI a share of this revenue. These payments will now be dropped, the companies said.
Microsoft and OpenAI said their agreement remained “strong and central”.
