OpenAI and Microsoft Reach Revised Agreement: Microsoft's Revenue Share Drops to 8%
As OpenAI and Microsoft finalize new partnership terms, OpenAI stands to reduce its payout share by $50 billion.
According to media reports on September 12th, OpenAI has informed some shareholders that the revenue share percentage it pays to Microsoft will drop significantly from nearly 20% this year to approximately 8% by 2030. This change means that by 2030, OpenAI could retain an additional $50 billion in revenue for itself.
The negotiations between the two parties extend beyond this. Key discussions are still ongoing regarding how the partnership will evolve once OpenAI achieves Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), as well as the cost of OpenAI renting server capacity from Microsoft.
Significant Reduction in Revenue Share
According to the initial cooperation agreement, Microsoft was entitled to 20% of OpenAI's revenue until 2030.
The new 8% share means that by 2030, OpenAI is expected to share nearly 74 billion.
It is currently unclear why OpenAI expects its revenue share with Microsoft to be lower than the original agreement's 20%. However, some OpenAI executives had previously hoped Microsoft would exclude yet-to-be-released future products from the existing revenue-sharing agreement, such as a doctoral-level AI agent with a monthly fee as high as $20,000.
Notably, this 8% target is more aggressive than predictions earlier this year when OpenAI anticipated sharing about 10% of its revenue with partners by 2030.
Reports indicate that this year's high 20% share rate might reflect the agreement for OpenAI to power some Siri queries on Apple devices, although this collaboration does not appear to have contributed significantly to OpenAI's subscription sales.
Equity Restructuring Plan Takes Shape
The two companies are also negotiating arrangements for after OpenAI achieves AGI.
AGI refers to artificial intelligence that reaches a level of intelligence comparable to humans. As previously mentioned, existing contracts stipulate that once OpenAI demonstrates its technology can achieve AGI, Microsoft will lose its exclusive access to OpenAI's technology.
However, Microsoft is actively seeking to amend or completely remove this AGI clause. Simultaneously, the parties are negotiating how much server resources OpenAI will rent from Microsoft.
While many aspects of the agreement are still under discussion, some arrangements have been largely finalized.
Under the new corporate structure, OpenAI's non-profit organization and Microsoft are each expected to acquire approximately one-third of the shares. OpenAI currently allows employees to sell shares at a $500 billion valuation.
It remains unclear whether the new non-binding cooperation agreement announced by Microsoft and OpenAI on Thursday incorporates the changes to the revenue-sharing plan recently shared with investors.
Teams from both companies have been engaged in intensive negotiations over the past few weeks. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, and their respective teams have been holding weekly meetings to finalize the restructuring details.
Additional Context from Reports:
Microsoft and OpenAI announced on Thursday that they had signed a new non-binding agreement regarding the terms of their relationship, which will allow OpenAI to advance its restructuring plan to become a for-profit company.
OpenAI stated that its non-profit parent company will retain 13 billion in OpenAI since 2019 and shares revenue from ChatGPT and its API.
Microsoft now also views OpenAI as a competitor and has begun increasing its reliance on its own AI models.
Risk warning: The above analysis does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile. Please make decisions based on your own risk tolerance.If reprinted, please indicate the source：https://www.xf1233.com/a/1057
