Microsoft ‘thrilled’ over strategic partnership with OpenAI, Stargate

Microsoft (MSFT) said in a blog post that it is “thrilled” to continue its strategic partnership with OpenAI and to partner on Stargate. “Today’s announcement is complimentary to what our two companies have been working on together since 2019,” Microsoft said. “The key elements of our partnership remain in place for the duration of our contract through 2030, with our access to OpenAI’s IP, our revenue sharing arrangements and our exclusivity on OpenAI’s APIs all continuing forward – specifically: Microsoft has rights to OpenAI IP (inclusive of model and infrastructure) for use within our products like Copilot. This means our customers have access to the best model for their needs. The OpenAI API is exclusive to Azure, runs on Azure and is also available through the Azure OpenAI Service. This agreement means customers benefit from having access to leading models on Microsoft platforms and direct from OpenAI. Microsoft and OpenAI have revenue sharing agreements that flow both ways, ensuring that both companies benefit from increased use of new and existing models. Microsoft remains a major investor in OpenAI, providing funding and capacity to support their advancements and, in turn, benefiting from their growth in valuation. In addition to this, OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as well as training. This new agreement also includes changes to the exclusivity on new capacity, moving to a model where Microsoft has a right of first refusal (ROFR). To further support OpenAI, Microsoft has approved OpenAI’s ability to build additional capacity, primarily for research and training of models. We thank OpenAI for their continued partnership and look forward to what’s to come.”