In July 2025, Microsoft initiated negotiations with OpenAI for a new agreement that would ensure the company's continued access to OpenAI's technology even after the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), modifying the original 2019 contract which stipulated that Microsoft would lose its access rights if OpenAI developed AGI. According to the agreement originally signed in 2019, the exclusive licence to OpenAI's technology would automatically terminate if the company reached the AGI milestone, defined as an AI system that outperforms humans in most economically valuable tasks. The new negotiations aim for an expanded investment and access agreement that would secure Microsoft's continued access to the technology and maintain the partnership, considering that the company has already invested $13 billion in OpenAI and deeply integrated its technology into its product portfolio.
The current discussions take place one year after the announcement of Microsoft's $10 billion investment, and according to insiders, the company may acquire up to a 30% stake in OpenAI under the new agreement. During negotiations, Microsoft's goal is to create a long-term access agreement that protects it from losing technological access even if OpenAI reaches the AGI milestone, particularly important given that Microsoft has integrated AI capabilities into numerous products—including Office 365, Azure, and Bing—in recent years. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, has emphasised the strategic importance of the partnership with OpenAI for the company, especially as Microsoft's AI Copilot technology, partly based on OpenAI's GPT models, provides a significant competitive advantage in the rapidly growing AI market.
OpenAI's current market value exceeds $80 billion, and the company is getting closer to meeting its own definition of AGI, with GPT-5 already delivering human-level performance in many tasks. The new negotiations reflect the mutual dependence of the two companies, where Microsoft provides financial support and computing infrastructure, while OpenAI focuses on developing the most advanced AI models. When the original agreement was formulated in 2019, AGI seemed a distant goal, but OpenAI's current models, particularly GPT-4 and GPT-5, have significantly accelerated the pace of AI development, necessitating a review of previous agreements. The new agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI is expected to be finalised in the third quarter of 2025, after the companies complete comprehensive legal and regulatory reviews.
Sources:
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Rebecca Bellan
2.
AInvest · July 29, 2025
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Yahoo Finance · 2025
