OpenAI and Microsoft have agreed to cap total revenue-sharing payments at $38 billion, according to a report by The Information, marking another major shift in the evolving relationship between the two companies as the ChatGPT-maker pushes toward a possible public listing.

The report, citing a person familiar with the arrangement, said the revised structure could help OpenAI present a stronger long-term financial case to investors ahead of a potential IPO that some executives believe could happen as early as the end of this year.

The development comes weeks after Microsoft and OpenAI formally reworked their partnership agreement, introducing a more flexible commercial framework that allows OpenAI to pursue broader cloud and enterprise partnerships beyond Microsoft Azure.

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In a blog post published on April 27, Microsoft said the amended agreement was designed to bring “flexibility, certainty and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly”.

“The rapid pace of innovation requires us to continue to evolve our partnership to benefit our customers and both companies,” Microsoft said. “Today, we are announcing an amended agreement to simplify our partnership and the way we work together, grounded in flexibility, certainty and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly.”

A major change in the revised arrangement allows OpenAI to distribute its products across multiple cloud providers, reducing its earlier dependence on Azure and opening the door for partnerships with companies such as Amazon and Google.

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Even so, Microsoft will continue to retain a central role in OpenAI’s infrastructure strategy.

“Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products will ship first on Azure, unless Microsoft cannot and chooses not to support the necessary capabilities,” the company said.

At the same time, Microsoft confirmed that “OpenAI can now serve all its products to customers across any cloud provider,” signalling a broader multi-cloud strategy aimed at scaling enterprise AI adoption. 

Microsoft has invested roughly $13 billion into OpenAI since 2019, a partnership widely seen as instrumental in accelerating OpenAI’s rise as a leading AI company while also driving demand for Microsoft’s Azure cloud business.