A Bloomberg report indicates that Microsoft derives approximately $24.1 billion of its artificial intelligence revenue from OpenAI during the fiscal year ending in June. This figure represents roughly 70 percent of the total AI income for the software giant. CEO Satya Nadella previously stated in late March that the business was on track to exceed $37 billion annually under their current agreement. OpenAI pays Microsoft for computing power, model development costs, and a share of the revenue generated by their partnership.
This financial dependency explains Microsoft’s recent stance on open-weight models and its criticism of competitors who oppose distillation. The company, historically associated with vendor lock-in, has been championing openness while warning against proprietary models capturing entire industries. Satya Nadella also criticized AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic for opposing the practice of training models on proprietary outputs to build rivals more easily. Chinese manufacturers have reportedly been aggressive with this approach while Microsoft swaps in its own AI models across Office products.
- OpenAI pays for computing power and development costs
- Microsoft derives 70 percent of AI revenue from OpenAI
- Nadella criticises distillation practices by rivals
