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OpenAI ends Microsoft legal peril over its $50B Amazon agreement
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On Monday, Microsoft and OpenAI announced that they have, once again, renegotiated the deal binding the two companies.
Key facts
- In November, OpenAI and Amazon signed their first multi-year agreement, in which OpenAI contracted for $38 billion worth of AWS cloud
- In October, OpenAI agreed to buy an additional $250 billion worth of Microsoft’s cloud
- In February, Amazon announced an up-to-$50-billion investment in OpenAI, pending “certain conditions,” including the exclusive tech development and hosting deal for Frontier and stateful tech
- Most importantly, the new terms solve an issue that was hanging over OpenAI’s head since it signed its up-to-$50-billion deal with Amazon
Summary
Most importantly, the new terms solve an issue that was hanging over OpenAI’s head since it signed its up-to-$50-billion deal with Amazon. With this new deal, instead of Microsoft having exclusive access to all of OpenAI’s products and IP until the magical day when OpenAI produces AGI, its partnership has a definitive timeline. The two companies are still calling Microsoft OpenAI’s “primary cloud partner,” meaning that the bulk of OpenAI’s cloud will likely be served by Azure for the six years this deal covers, even as OpenAI rushes to build its own data centers with other partners. OpenAI products will ship “first on Azure, unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities,” the companies say.