OpenAI and Microsoft are rewriting terms of their multibillion-dollar partnership in a negotiation designed to allow the ChatGPT maker to launch a future public listing, while protecting the software giant’s access to cutting-edge AI models, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

A critical issue is how much equity in OpenAI’s new for-profit business Microsoft will receive in exchange for the more than US$13-billion it has invested in the company to date, the report said. It said Microsoft is offering to give up some of its equity stake in exchange for access to new technology developed beyond the 2030 cutoff.

They are also revising terms of a wider contract, first drafted when Microsoft initially invested $1-billion into OpenAI in 2019, the report said. Microsoft declined to comment on the report. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Terms

OpenAI has told investors it will share a smaller fraction of revenue with its largest backer as it moves ahead with restructuring, The Information reported last week.

Read: What Microsoft’s R5.4-billion AI investment means for South Africa

In January, Microsoft changed some terms of a deal with OpenAI after entering a joint venture with Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank Group to build up to $500-billion of new artificial intelligence data centres in the US. — Rhea Rose Abraham, (c) 2025 Reuters

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