Microsoft books $10 billion in quarterly revenue from OpenAI
Software giant Microsoft earned $10 billion from its arrangements with AI developer OpenAI in the quarter ended September 30, nearly 11% of its total revenue. The two companies increasingly compete for the same customers.
Microsoft, the US software and cloud company, said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that commercial arrangements with artificial intelligence developer OpenAI, including revenue-sharing payments, brought in $10 billion in the quarter ended September 30. That is nearly 11% of Microsoft's total quarterly revenue of $92.3 billion, and it shows how closely the two firms remain tied financially even as they compete more and more for the same customers.
Microsoft's financial year starts in July, so this was the first quarter of its fiscal 2027. Across the whole of fiscal 2026, revenue from OpenAI came to $24.1 billion. At the latest quarterly rate, annual revenue from OpenAI-related arrangements would reach $40 billion.
Receivables and revenue sharing
At the end of September Microsoft reported $7.2 billion in outstanding receivables from OpenAI, up from $6 billion at the end of June. This is money OpenAI owes for earlier transactions, not additional revenue. It is unclear how much of the revenue came from revenue-sharing payments and how much from Azure cloud computing services.
In November 2025, TechCrunch reported, citing leaked documents, that Microsoft received $865.8 million in net revenue-sharing payments from OpenAI in the first nine months of that year. OpenAI reportedly shares 20% of its revenue with Microsoft under an earlier deal in which Microsoft invested more than $13 billion. Neither company has publicly confirmed the percentage.
A changing relationship
Under an April 2026 agreement, OpenAI must keep sharing revenue with Microsoft through 2030, subject to a cap, while being allowed to work with rival cloud providers. The once-exclusive partnership began to loosen in October 2025, when Microsoft gave up its exclusive hold so OpenAI could partner with other cloud providers. In return, OpenAI committed to buying an additional $250 billion in Azure services.
Microsoft's ownership stake in OpenAI has slipped from about 25% in June to 24% in September, continuing a gradual decline from roughly 27% after the October 2025 recapitalization. Microsoft did not say what caused the dilution.
