OpenAI and Microsoft have reportedly agreed to cap the total revenue OpenAI shares with Microsoft at $38 billion. Reuters reported, citing The Information and a person familiar with the arrangement. Microsoft has not publicly detailed the size of the cap in its statement, but it did confirm that revenue-share payments from OpenAI would continue through 2030, at the same percentage, subject to a total cap.
OpenAI and Microsoft renegotiated their contract last month, giving OpenAI room to pursue partnerships with other large technology companies, including Amazon and Google. Microsoft’s April 27 blog post said the amended deal makes the partnership more flexible, keeps Microsoft as OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, and allows OpenAI to serve products across any cloud provider.
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Why the $38 billion cap matters
The $38 billion cap puts a ceiling on a very large revenue-sharing obligation while OpenAI is still scaling fast and trying to sharpen its long-term financial profile. The cap could strengthen OpenAI’s pitch to investors as it works toward a potential public offering.
Microsoft and OpenAI had already renegotiated parts of their contract, including the exclusive structure that had made Microsoft the only major channel for OpenAI models in some contexts. The revised terms help OpenAI secure more computing power and build a larger enterprise business, while giving Microsoft more certainty around its returns and lowering dependency risk.
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Microsoft’s April blog post confirms that the partnership has been simplified, Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, its license to OpenAI intellectual property is now non-exclusive, and OpenAI’s revenue-share payments to Microsoft continue through 2030 but are capped.
Microsoft’s early investment in OpenAI totaled $13 billion since 2019.
What it means
For OpenAI, the cap lowers one layer of monetary uncertainty and gives the company more room to negotiate with other infrastructure partners.
For Microsoft, it preserves a major economic claim while reducing the awkwardness of an arrangement that had been moving toward exclusivity and dependency.
New terms also remove a clause that would have allowed OpenAI to stop paying Microsoft if it reached artificial general intelligence, which is another sign that both sides wanted cleaner rules.
[Also Read: Microsoft Commits $18 Billion to Expand AI and Cloud Infrastructure in Australia ]
The OpenAI and Microsoft partnership is not just a vendor story; it is becoming a more conventional commercial partnership, shaped by cloud capacity, enterprise distribution, and investor expectations. That does not make it weaker. It makes it more legible.
