But in truth, one company got a better deal than the other. Who came out ahead? To figure that out, we first need to look at the most important details of the new agreement.
A new deal after a lot of rancor
Keep in mind that this new agreement didn’t arise from thin air. It’s a direct result of Microsoft’s threats in March to sue OpenAI when inked a $50 billion deal with Amazon that makes the latter company the only third-party cloud provider for OpenAI’s enterprise platform for building and running AI agents.
After the Amazon-OpenAI contract was signed, Microsoft claimed it violated its exclusive cloud agreement with OpenAI. A Microsoft source told the Financial Times, “We know our contract. We will sue them if they breach it. If Amazon and OpenAI want to take a bet on the creativity of their contractual lawyers, I would back us, not them.”
That led to negotiations, and ultimately the pact between Microsoft and OpenAI that loosens the bonds between the two companies, making it easier for them to go their own ways It also significantly changes the financial relationships between them.
