Microsoft will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI as the latter will now operate under a "non-exclusive" licence, according to a blog post from Microsoft from Monday.
This means that OpenAI is now free to offer licensing of its proprietary AI technology such as its GPT models across cloud providers instead of being limited to its former exclusive deal with Microsoft.
"Today, we are announcing an amended agreement to simplify our partnership and the way we work together, grounded in flexibility, certainty and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly," the blog post said.
The tech giant initially had exclusive early access to OpenAI's AI systems, being able to implement improvements in AI software into its products like Copilot, before its competitors.
Microsoft will continue to be OpenAI's primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products will continue to ship first on Azure, unless Microsoft is unable to, or chooses not to have the prerequisite capabilities.
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"The greater predictability in the amended agreement strengthens our joint ability to build and operate AI platforms at scale while providing both companies the flexibility to pursue new opportunities," the blog post stated.
Microsoft will also continue its licensing of OpenAI's intellectual property with regards to models and products through 2032.
OpenAI will continue with its revenue share payments to Microsoft through 2030. They will be independent of OpenAI's progress in technology, with the same percentage, as well as being subject to a "total cap". Microsoft will also continue on as major shareholder of OpenAI and "participate directly" in the latter's growth.
"While this amendment simplifies the partnership, the work we're doing together remains ambitious. From scaling gigawatts of new datacenter capacity, to collaborating on next-generation silicon, to applying AI to advance cybersecurity, and more, we're excited to keep partnering to advance and scale AI for people and organizations around the world," Microsoft said.
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