Microsoft and OpenAI Re-Sign Agreement: Removes Exclusivity, Strips Out AGI Clause

According to a Microsoft official blog announcement on April 27, Microsoft and OpenAI have officially re-signed their cooperation agreement. There are three major changes: removing OpenAI’s exclusivity over Microsoft’s cloud, abolishing the most controversial “AGI triggering clause” from the past, and extending the IP license to 2032 but changing it to non-exclusive. For the AI industry, this is a key moment in the structural reshaping of the relationship between the two parties since OpenAI first accepted Microsoft’s investment in 2019.

Exclusivity ends: OpenAI can choose any cloud service

Under the new agreement, OpenAI is no longer forced to provide services only on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft’s announcement text reads: “OpenAI products will ship first on Azure, unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities.” At the same time, “OpenAI can provide its products to customers on any cloud service.”

Significance: From now on, OpenAI can directly approach Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud for compute capacity and distribution partnerships. Previously, rumors circulated that OpenAI and Amazon had a $50 billion cloud contract; this agreement removes partnership barriers, and Amazon is expected to become OpenAI’s second-largest cloud provider. Google may also use this opportunity to integrate the Gemini API and OpenAI models into certain enterprise contracts.

AGI clause abolished: revenue-sharing cutoff in 2030—no longer triggered by AGI

The most controversial “AGI triggering clause” has been formally removed. The original contract stipulated that if OpenAI itself announced that it had reached AGI (Artificial General Intelligence, general artificial intelligence), Microsoft’s licensing of OpenAI IP and revenue-sharing could enter a special handling mechanism, creating legal gray areas.

The new agreement changes this to “revenue-sharing ends in 2030, regardless of whether AGI is achieved before then.” It means:

OpenAI will continue to pay Microsoft revenue-sharing through 2030

There is no longer a triggering mechanism where “if AGI is achieved, partnership conditions change”

OpenAI’s power to define AGI itself also loses contractual meaning

For the AI industry, this removes a long-term uncertainty—investors, competitors, and regulators in the past all needed to incorporate “when OpenAI claims it has achieved AGI” into valuation and policy scenarios; now, that variable disappears.

IP license extended to 2032, Microsoft changes to non-exclusive

Microsoft’s IP (intellectual property) licensing for OpenAI models and products has been extended to 2032 (from the original agreement’s 2030). But at the same time, the licensing nature changes from “exclusive” to “non-exclusive”—meaning that while OpenAI retains the ability to work with Microsoft, it can license in the same way to other major enterprises (such as Amazon, Google, and Apple).

Microsoft is still OpenAI’s main shareholder and continues to enjoy capital gains from OpenAI’s business growth. Since 2019, Microsoft has cumulatively invested about $13 billion in OpenAI. While the new agreement does not disclose Microsoft’s specific equity percentage, its “major shareholder” status has not changed.

Microsoft stops the two-way sharing and switches to one-way collecting OpenAI’s share

The agreement simplifies the two-way revenue-sharing mechanism: previously, Microsoft and OpenAI paid each other revenue share (Microsoft returned part of the revenue from OpenAI usage on Azure to OpenAI, and OpenAI returned revenue share from product sales to Microsoft). Under the new agreement:

Microsoft no longer pays revenue share to OpenAI

OpenAI continues to pay revenue share to Microsoft at the original proportion, through 2030

A “total cap” mechanism is introduced; after the cap is exceeded, OpenAI no longer pays revenue share

The specific revenue-share percentages and cap amounts are not disclosed. Market speculation suggests that after OpenAI’s rapid growth, the revenue-share cap may be reached in 2027–2028. This would mean Microsoft’s maximum cash return from receiving shares from OpenAI is predictable and no longer increases infinitely as OpenAI’s scale grows.

Significance for the AI industry: reshuffling the competitive landscape among Anthropic, Amazon, and Google Gemini

This re-signing affects three key axes:

For OpenAI: gaining a historic “cross-cloud freedom.” It can collaborate with AWS and GCP at the same time, strengthening its bargaining power and reducing the risk of relying on a single cloud provider. It also supports the valuation of its over-$1 trillion secondary-market value.

For Microsoft: losing exclusivity but keeping its major shareholder position. Azure remains the priority “first ship” platform, and the IP license is extended to 2032—so Microsoft Copilot and the long-term capability of integrating OpenAI models into Office 365 are not impaired. In the short term, the stock price may face pressure from the loss of an exclusivity narrative, but in the long term, valuation will be determined by Azure’s own AI capabilities.

For Anthropic, Google Gemini, and Amazon: competitive pressure is reorganized. In the past, Amazon used Anthropic to counter the OpenAI + Microsoft alliance, but now OpenAI can also go directly onto AWS, and Anthropic loses its exclusive position as the “frontier model provider on AWS.” Google’s biggest potential near-term beneficiary direction is enterprise integration (a multi-model strategy), but it still faces direct competition from OpenAI.

Next observation point: Starting in May, whether OpenAI will officially announce compute partnerships with AWS or GCP. If the three companies simultaneously provide cloud services for OpenAI, the AI industry will formally enter a mature phase of “frontier model + multi-cloud,” similar to the Android multi-OEM model of mobile operating systems.

This Microsoft and OpenAI re-signed agreement article—cancels exclusivity and removes AGI clauses—first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.