Microsoft and OpenAI announced on Monday that they have revised the agreement between them, with both companies benefiting from the updated terms.

While some users on X interpret the changes as a win for OpenAI over Microsoft, the reality is that both sides stand to gain from the new arrangement.

Most notably, the revised deal resolves a key concern that had been looming over OpenAI since it entered its up-to-$50 billion partnership with Amazon.

Under the new agreement, Microsoft no longer retains exclusive access to all of OpenAI’s products and intellectual property until the point OpenAI achieves artificial general intelligence.

Instead, the partnership now has a fixed duration.

The contract grants Microsoft a nonexclusive license to OpenAI’s intellectual property, including its models and products, through 2032.

Despite this change, Microsoft remains designated as OpenAI’s “primary cloud partner,” meaning a large share of OpenAI’s computing needs is still expected to run on Azure over the six-year term.

At the same time, OpenAI continues to expand its own infrastructure, including building data centers in collaboration with other partners.

OpenAI products will be released “first on Azure,” unless Microsoft is unable or unwilling to support the required capabilities, according to the companies.

At the same time, the agreement now allows OpenAI to offer all of its products to customers on any cloud provider.
However, the term “first” is left somewhat undefined in the announcement, it is unclear whether it implies a period of exclusivity on Azure or simply that Microsoft will be among the initial cloud providers to host OpenAI’s newest releases.

Importantly, this change also removes a major legal risk: it reduces the possibility of Microsoft challenging or suing OpenAI over its separate cloud arrangement with Amazon.