OpenAI Wants to Renegotiate Deal with Microsoft?

OpenAI recently announced a new corporate structure, namely the transformation of the capped-profit part into a PBC (Public Benefit Corporation) with the non-profit part that will maintain control. According to the Financial Times, the Californian company has begun discussions with Microsoft on a possible renegotiation of the agreement signed in 2019 and updated at the end of January .

Fewer shares for Microsoft after 2030?

Following the agreement signed between the parties in 2019, Microsoft offers OpenAI the cloud infrastructure for model training, while OpenAI gives Microsoft access to its technologies (Copilot is based on GPT eo models). So far, the Redmond company has invested over 13 billion dollars in the Californian startup, but since January it is no longer the exclusive cloud provider.

The corporate restructuring has not yet been approved by Microsoft. As Bloomberg had speculated, a renegotiation of the agreement is underway. According to sources at the Financial Times, the Redmond company has proposed to give up some shares of the for-profit part (which will become a PBC) in order to access the new technologies developed by OpenAI after 2030 (expiration of the current agreement).

Negotiations have become more complicated, however, because OpenAI could become a direct competitor to Microsoft. In addition to offering AI products to enterprise customers, the company led by Sam Altman has started the Stargate project , which involves building new data centers (the first will be in Texas) in collaboration with various partners, including SoftBank.

Other investors are hoping that the transformation into PBC will be successful, but if it doesn’t, they may ask for a partial or total refund of the amount they paid. The new corporate structure would eventually allow for an IPO (Initial Public Offering), or a listing on the stock exchange.