Abstract:
Microsoft’s latest regulatory filing disclosed that the company earned US$10 billion in revenue through commercial cooperation related to OpenAI in the quarter ending September 30, 2026. This figure includes income from revenue sharing and other commercial arrangements, accounting for nearly 11% of Microsoft's total revenue of US$92.3 billion in the quarter, showing that the two parties still maintain extremely close business ties even in the context of increasing competition in the artificial intelligence market.
According to Microsoft's fiscal year calculation rules, the quarter ending on September 30, 2026 belongs to the first quarter of the company's fiscal year 2027. Documents show that OpenAI has become one of Microsoft's important revenue sources.
Judging from full-year data, Microsoft's total revenue from OpenAI-related cooperation in fiscal year 2026 reached US$24.1 billion. If calculated based on the latest quarterly levels, this part of the business is expected to bring about US$40 billion in revenue to Microsoft in the next year.
Microsoft also disclosed that as of the end of September, OpenAI still had US$7.2 billion in accounts receivable, a further increase from US$6 billion at the end of June. This part of the funds represents OpenAI’s arrears from previous transactions and does not constitute new income.
However, Microsoft did not explain how much of the $10 billion in revenue came from Azure cloud services and how much came from the revenue sharing mechanism between the two parties. At present, the company has not announced more detailed composition.
The market has long been concerned about the complex and special business relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI. According to previously exposed information, Microsoft invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI in the early years and received revenue sharing rights as a result. It is generally believed that OpenAI will share part of its revenue with Microsoft in an agreed proportion, but the two parties have never officially publicly confirmed the specific share ratio.
In April this year, the two parties reached a new cooperation agreement. According to the agreement, even if OpenAI continues to expand cooperation with other cloud service providers in the future, it will still need to continue to provide revenue sharing to Microsoft as agreed before 2030. The relevant obligations will last for many years, but the agreement also has a cap mechanism.
In fact, the two companies have gradually adjusted their highly binding cooperation model in the past. In October 2025, Microsoft relaxed previous restrictions on OpenAI cloud infrastructure, allowing the latter to cooperate with other cloud service providers to meet the rapidly growing demand for computing power.
In exchange, OpenAI promises to continue to purchase large quantities of Microsoft Azure cloud services in the future. According to the agreement reached by the two parties at the time, OpenAI will purchase an additional $250 billion worth of Azure services in the future to ensure that Microsoft can continue to share the infrastructure dividends brought by the artificial intelligence wave.
At the same time, Microsoft's shareholding ratio in OpenAI also declined slightly. Regulatory documents show that as of September this year, Microsoft held approximately 24% of OpenAI’s shares, down from 25% in June this year, and lower than its approximately 27% shareholding after the reorganization is completed in 2025. Microsoft did not specify the specific reason for this equity dilution.
Analysts pointed out that these data reflect that the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI is gradually evolving from a simple investment and invested relationship to a more complex strategic partnership. On the one hand, the two parties compete directly in the enterprise customers, generative artificial intelligence platform and development tool markets; on the other hand, OpenAI's dependence on Azure infrastructure and the long-term revenue sharing mechanism of both parties enable Microsoft to continue to benefit from the growth of OpenAI's business.
As the artificial intelligence industry enters the stage of large-scale commercialization, the cooperative and competitive relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI is becoming one of the most noteworthy strategic alliances in the global technology industry.
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