Financial details of OpenAI are under increased scrutiny following a year of significant dealmaking and speculation about a potential IPO. Leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, offering insights into the AI company’s revenue and compute costs over the past couple of years. Tech blogger Ed Zitron obtained the documents, providing a glimpse into the financial relationship between the two tech giants.
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Background Context
According to Zitron’s report, Microsoft received $493.8 million in revenue share payments from OpenAI in 2024. This figure reportedly jumped to $865.8 million in the first three quarters of 2025. These payments stem from a deal where Microsoft invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, with a reported revenue-sharing agreement where OpenAI gives Microsoft 20% of its revenue. While neither company has publicly confirmed this percentage, the leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, giving some clarity.
However, the financial relationship is more complex. Microsoft also shares revenue with OpenAI, reportedly kicking back about 20% of the revenues from Bing and Azure OpenAI Service, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bing utilizes OpenAI’s technology, and the Azure OpenAI Service provides cloud access to OpenAI’s models for developers and businesses. The source indicated that the leaked figures represent Microsoft’s net revenue share, excluding payments made by Microsoft to OpenAI from Bing and Azure OpenAI royalties. Microsoft deducts these payments from its internally reported revenue share numbers.
Revenue Implications for OpenAI
Based on the reported 20% revenue-share statistic, OpenAI’s revenue can be estimated to be at least $2.5 billion in 2024 and $4.33 billion in the first three quarters of 2025. However, the actual revenue is likely higher, the leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, indirectly revealing revenue figures. Previous reports estimated OpenAI’s 2024 revenue at around $4 billion, and its revenue for the first half of 2025 at $4.3 billion.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that the company’s revenue is “well more” than reports of $13 billion a year and expects to end the year with an annualized revenue run rate above $20 billion. He also suggested that OpenAI could potentially reach $100 billion by 2027. These figures, combined with the leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, provide a broader context for the company’s financial performance.
Compute Costs and Spending
Zitron’s analysis suggests that OpenAI spent approximately $3.8 billion on inference in 2024. This spending increased to roughly $8.65 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Inference refers to the compute used to run a trained AI model to generate responses. OpenAI has historically relied heavily on Microsoft Azure for compute access, but has also established deals with CoreWeave, Oracle, AWS, and Google Cloud.
Previous reports have put OpenAI’s total compute spend at roughly $5.6 billion for 2024 and its “cost of revenue” at $2.5 billion for the first half of 2025. While OpenAI’s training spend is mostly non-cash, paid by credits from Microsoft’s investment, its inference spend is largely cash. The leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, and simultaneously provide insight into OpenAI’s operational expenses. This financial data implies that OpenAI could potentially be spending more on inference costs than it is earning in revenue, raising questions about the long-term sustainability of its current business model.
Market Impact and Future Outlook
The financial implications of OpenAI’s spending and revenue raise concerns about the AI bubble. If a leading AI company like OpenAI is spending more than it earns, it could have significant implications for the broader AI industry, particularly for companies with high valuations. The leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, and the resulting revelations have fueled discussions about the financial health of the AI sector.
While OpenAI declined to comment, and Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment, the leaked documents provide valuable insights into the financial dynamics between the two companies. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for assessing the current state and future prospects of the AI industry. The leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, offering a rare glimpse into the complex financial relationships that underpin the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
In conclusion, the leaked documents shed light into how much OpenAI pays Microsoft, offering valuable insight into OpenAI’s financial situation, including its revenue, compute costs, and the complex financial interplay between the two companies. The information gleaned from these documents highlights both the impressive scale of OpenAI’s operations and the potential challenges it faces in achieving sustained profitability.
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