New turn in Microsoft and OpenAI ties with $10 billion in revenue

The subject is how much Microsoft and OpenAI rely on each other as they compete for customers. In October 2025 Microsoft gave up its hold on OpenAI. Then OpenAI agreed to buy $250 billion more of Azure services.

Microsoft said in a report to regulators on Wednesday that it earned $10 billion from commercial deals with OpenAI. This is for the quarter that ended 30 September 2026 and includes revenue sharing payments, almost 11% of the total revenue of Microsoft. OpenAI makes AI models, and Microsoft put more than $13 billion into it.

What the report shows

• Revenue from OpenAI for all of fiscal 2026 was $24.1 billion.
• OpenAI owed Microsoft $7.2 billion at the end of September.
• That sum is for earlier deals and is not new revenue.

The ties loosen

The stake of Microsoft in OpenAI fell to 24% from 25% in June. Microsoft did not say why. By an April 2026 agreement, OpenAI continues to share revenue until 2030, with a limit. OpenAI can also use other cloud providers.

What is not known

The report does not show how much came from revenue sharing and how much from Azure. No company has confirmed the reported rate of the revenue share.

Insight: Microsoft sells to a rival that owes it money

Gartner says that owners of AI data centers must get $8.5 trillion of revenue through 2030. It forecasts no more than $3.6 trillion. Microsoft gets a large part of its AI income from one customer that also competes with it. The two sides seem tied until the revenue share ends in 2030. Check the quantity that OpenAI owes. If it keeps rising, OpenAI pays more slowly.