Microsoft and OpenAI announced a restructuring of their partnership, ending Microsoft’s exclusive license to OpenAI’s models and products. This change enables Amazon to distribute OpenAI’s technology through its AWS cloud platform.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy described the announcement as “very interesting” and stated that the company is excited to offer OpenAI’s models directly to customers on Bedrock in the coming weeks. This shift increases the competition in the enterprise AI landscape.
The revised agreement reflects a shift that began in February when Amazon and OpenAI formed a multi-year strategic partnership that included a $50 billion investment from Amazon aimed at co-developing a Stateful Runtime Environment on Amazon Bedrock. Under that prior deal, AWS served as the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI Frontier, the company’s platform for managing AI agents.
With the new terms, Microsoft will remain OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, holding a non-exclusive license through 2032. OpenAI is now free to serve its products across any cloud provider. Microsoft will end its revenue share payments to OpenAI but will continue capped payments through 2030.
OpenAI’s internal communications indicate a strong demand for the Amazon offering, suggesting that its previous relationship with Microsoft may have limited its growth potential. Amazon highlighted that its AI revenue within AWS has reached an annual run rate of $15 billion, with OpenAI’s commitment of over $100 billion in cloud spending underpinning Amazon’s $200 billion capital expenditure plan for 2026.
In connection with the agreement, OpenAI pledged to utilize approximately 2 gigawatts of AWS Trainium capacity. Microsoft continues to participate as a significant shareholder in OpenAI, focusing on collaboration in areas such as datacenter capacity and next-generation silicon.
Following the announcement, Microsoft’s stock experienced a brief dip before recovering. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that the company is now equipped to provide its products and services across all cloud platforms.
