Microsoft and OpenAI terminate exclusive cooperation agreement: the beginning of the reshaping of the AI ​​industry landscape

Core conclusion

On April 27, 2026, Microsoft and OpenAI officially announced the end of their exclusive cooperation and revenue sharing agreement. This decision ends the deep binding relationship between the two parties in the field of AI since 2019, marking the AI industry entering a new stage:

Key Points

• Time of incident: 2026-04-27 -Affected objects: AI developers, automation practitioners, cloud computing users
• Core changes: OpenAI is no longer bound to the Microsoft Azure cloud, and you can freely choose the computing power provider; Microsoft no longer enjoys exclusive revenue sharing from the OpenAI model.

Background and trigger events

In 2019, Microsoft invested approximately US$13 billion in OpenAI, and the two parties signed an exclusive cloud computing cooperation agreement. In exchange, Microsoft received priority access to OpenAI model technology and a 75% profit share (until the investment was recouped), later reduced to 49%.

Today, seven years later, this exclusive architecture has exposed a deep contradiction: while Microsoft is an Azure cloud provider, it is also developing self-developed AI models (such as the MAI series), directly competing with OpenAI. At the same time, OpenAI hopes to use alternative computing power such as Google TPU due to cost considerations, but the exclusive agreement limits its infrastructure options.

According to Bloomberg, the two parties signed a new agreement on April 27, 2026. The core changes include:

• Unbinding exclusive cloud: OpenAI is no longer required to use Azure exclusively and is free to choose Google Cloud, AWS or other infrastructure
• End revenue sharing: Microsoft no longer takes 49% of profits from OpenAI revenue
• Investment relationship retained: Microsoft remains an investor in OpenAI, but is no longer an exclusive business partner
• Intellectual Property Independence: Each party retains the developed IP and technology

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement: "This allows us to have complete freedom in infrastructure choices while maintaining a good relationship with Microsoft." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: "This is the next natural step in the evolution of a great relationship."

Focus on background: A week before this news was released, Google had just launched a new generation of Gen 8 TPU, making OpenAI's need for non-Azure computing power even more urgent. At the same time, Microsoft's internal self-developed large model MAI-3 is close to the GPT-5 level in multiple benchmark tests, and the "competition relationship" between the two parties has become difficult to reconcile.

Key Impact

Impact on the AI industry chain

For content creators and automation practitioners

For practitioners who rely on AI tools to build automated processes, this change means:

• API costs may fall: OpenAI no longer needs to split 49% to Microsoft, which can theoretically reduce model API pricing
• Increased tool selection: Competing products such as Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, etc. will have a more level playing field
• Cloud architecture is more flexible: AI workloads are no longer limited to a single cloud provider, and multi-Region deployment is possible

Adaptation suggestions

In response to this industry change, practitioners are recommended to take the following specific actions:

• Evaluate multi-cloud strategy: Split model API calls into multi-vendor architecture, configure automatic failover. For example setting up OpenAI and Claude dual channels in n8n or LangGraph workflows.
• Pay attention to the pricing adjustment window period: OpenAI may adjust the pricing system after the protocol change. It is recommended to lock in the existing usage before the adjustment.
• Test Microsoft MAI model: If you are already using GitHub Copilot or Azure ecosystem, learn about MAI-3 API compatibility as soon as possible.
• Decoupling the migration architecture: Avoid deeply binding the automation pipeline to a single cloud provider and standardize the API interface layer.

Compliance Checklist

• Assess existing model API vendor dependency risks
• Add multi-vendor retry logic to the automation pipeline
• Update API Key management strategy to adapt to multi-cloud scenarios
• Watch for new pricing announcements from OpenAI and Microsoft

Industry reaction

After the news was released, the HN community received 872 points and 749 comments, becoming the most popular topic of the day. The mainstream view is that:

• Google may be the biggest beneficiary - almost all cutting-edge AI laboratories are using TPU, and OpenAI is the only one restricted by an exclusive agreement. With the launch of Gen 8 TPU, OpenAI is likely to adopt TPU for model training.
• Developers generally believe that this is a "healthy split" - Microsoft's Copilot products (including GitHub Copilot) will establish independent competitiveness on self-developed models.
• This change also echoes the shift to usage-based billing for GitHub Copilot released on the same day, showing that Microsoft is reshaping its AI product commercialization strategy.

Tool entry

The following AI tools and services are covered in the text: OpenAI, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Azure, Google Cloud, n8n, LangGraph, GitHub Copilot.

Follow next step

• Announcement of cooperation between OpenAI and Google Cloud / AWS
• Official release and pricing of Microsoft MAI-3 model
• OpenAI API pricing adjustment dynamics
• The actual impact of the new GitHub Copilot usage billing scheme on developers

*This article was published on 2026-04-28 and is based on official statements from Bloomberg and OpenAI and Hacker News community discussions. *