By Cade Metz,Karen Weise
Publication Date: 2026-04-27 13:48:00
Microsoft and OpenAI have amended their partnership to reduce their dependence on each other amid an escalating global artificial intelligence race, the companies said on Monday.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest financial backer, holds a stake in the start-up valued at more than $135 billion. The tech giant has long held exclusive rights to offer OpenAI’s technology to other customers on its cloud computing service, a major draw for its business.
But the companies’ relationship became strained as OpenAI grew from a small nonprofit research lab to a start-up expecting a huge initial public offering as soon as this year. OpenAI has needed more computing power than Microsoft could readily or wanted to provide, and it has sought to build partnerships with other cloud computing providers as it races against the rival A.I. start-up Anthropic and others.
Under the new agreement announced on Monday, Microsoft maintains access to license OpenAI’s A.I. technology through 2032, but it will no…
