ChatGPT maker OpenAI has told investors that it plans to give its major backer Microsoft a smaller revenue share by 2030, according to a report from The Information. The news of OpenAI’s plans to reduce Microsoft’s share of its revenue comes shortly after the company reversed its decision to take control of the organization from its non-profit arm.
Under the new plan, OpenAI plans to turn its for-profit arm into a separate public benefit corporation (PBC), but the non-profit would retain control over it and will be a major shareholder. The new move is intended to allow the AI startup to receive additional funding to stay relevant in the AI race, while keeping the non-profit goal more or less intact.
Shortly after the plan was announced, a Bloomberg report revealed that OpenAI’s new restructuring plans had not received Microsoft’s blessing, and that the Windows maker wanted to ensure that the new changes would protect its $13.75 billion investment.
OpenAI’s plan to cut Microsoft’s share in its revenue:
Under OpenAI’s existing contract, the company reportedly agreed to share 20% of its revenues until 2030. However, it now wants to cut it in half and reduce Microsoft’s share of its revenue to 10% by the end of this decade. The report also states that Microsoft wants access to OpenAI’s technology beyond 2030.
In response to the report, an OpenAI spokesperson told The Information, “We continue to work closely with Microsoft, and look forward to finalizing the details of this recapitalization in the near future,”
Notably, Microsoft had changed some key terms of its deal with OpenAI after the ChatGPT maker in January started Project Stargate – a joint venture with Japan’s SoftBank and Oracle to build around $500 billion AI data centre in the United States.
Notably, Microsoft had changed some key terms of its deal with OpenAI after the ChatGPT maker launched Project Stargate in January – a joint venture with Japan’s SoftBank and Oracle to build a $500 billion AI data centre in the United States.
OpenAI was dealt a major blow in early 2025, when China’s DeepSeek took Western markets by storm by building a similar AI model at a fraction of the cost. Since then, the Sam Altman-led company has launched a number of AI products to maintain its lead in the AI space. While Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro currently dominates the benchmarks, ChatGPT remains one of the most popular offerings, especially considering how its new image generator recently led to a viral craze for Ghibli and action figure-like images.
