Microsoft has announced the continuation of its strategic partnership with OpenAI, solidifying a collaboration that has been ongoing since 2019. The partnership will remain in effect through 2030, maintaining key elements such as access to OpenAI’s intellectual property (IP), revenue-sharing arrangements, and exclusivity on OpenAI’s APIs.

Under the agreement, Microsoft retains rights to OpenAI’s IP, including models and infrastructure, for integration into its products, such as Copilot. This ensures Microsoft customers have access to leading AI models tailored to their needs.

Additionally, OpenAI’s APIs will remain exclusive to Microsoft Azure, operating through the Azure OpenAI Service. This exclusivity guarantees that customers benefit from the availability of advanced AI models on Microsoft’s platforms.

The partnership also includes mutual revenue-sharing agreements, ensuring that both companies share in the success of increased usage of OpenAI’s models. 

OpenAI has recently made a significant Azure commitment to support its products and model training. The new agreement introduces a “right of first refusal” (ROFR) model, giving Microsoft priority access to new capacity. OpenAI has also been approved to build additional capacity, primarily to advance research and model training.