
Inside Microsoft’s complicated relationship with OpenAI
Tom Warren
created: June 19, 2025, 4 p.m. | updated: June 20, 2025, 12:28 p.m.
If Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue grows by 15 percent year-over-year, Microsoft then pays a 10 percent revenue share to OpenAI.
But OpenAI is trying to convince Microsoft to give up its entitlement to future profits in return for a stake in the reshaped OpenAI business.
Microsoft’s OpenAI contract also includes a clause that means it will relinquish its rights to OpenAI revenue and its AI models when the startup achieves AGI.
Nadella has been pushing Microsoft’s AI teams to move quickly on hosting OpenAI alternative models as part of its Azure AI Foundry business.
Mustafa Suleyman, the Google DeepMind cofounder who is now CEO of Microsoft AI, is overseeing Microsoft’s long-term efforts to replace OpenAI models.
1 week, 2 days ago: The Verge