September 24, 2025

322: Did OpenAI and Microsoft Break Up? It’s Complicated…

1 hour 23 minutes

Welcome to episode 322 of The Cloud Pod, where the forecast is always cloudy! We have BIG NEWS – Jonathan is back! He’s joined in the studio by Justin and Ryan to bring you all the latest in cloud and AI news, including ongoing drama in the Microsoft/OpenAI drama, saying goodbye to data transfer fees (in the EU), M4 Power, and more. Let’s get started!

Titles we almost went with this week

EU Later, Egress Fees: Google’s Brexit from Data Transfer Charges

The Keys to the Cosmos: Azure Unlocks Customer Control

Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Google Splits LLM Inference for Better Performance

OpenAI and Microsoft: From Exclusive to It’s Complicated

Google’s New Model Has Trust Issues (And That’s a Good Thing)

Mac to the Future: AWS Brings M4 Power to the Cloud

Oracle’s Cloud Nine: Stock Soars on Half-Trillion Dollar Dreams

ChatGPT: From Chat Bot to Hat Bot (Everyone’s Wearing Different Professional Hats)

Five Billion Reasons to Love British AI

NVMe Gonna Give You Up: AWS Delivers the Storage Metrics You’ve Been Missing

Tea and AI: OpenAI Crosses the Pond

The Norway Bug Strikes Back: A New YAML Hope

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AI Is Going Great – Or How ML Makes Money

01:33 Microsoft and OpenAI make a deal: Reading between the lines of their secretive new agreement – GeekWire

Microsoft and OpenAI have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding that will restructure their partnership, with OpenAI’s nonprofit entity receiving an equity stake exceeding $100 billion in a new public benefit corporation where Microsoft will play a major role.

The deal addresses the AGI clause that previously allowed OpenAI to unilaterally dissolve the partnership upon achieving artificial general intelligence, which had been a significant risk for Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar investment.

Both companies are diversifying their partnerships – Microsoft is now using Anthropic’s technology for some Office 365 AI features, while OpenAI has signed a $300 billion computing contract with Oracle over five years.

Microsoft’s exclusivity on OpenAI cloud workloads has been replaced with a right of first refusal, enabling OpenAI to participate in the $500 billion Stargate AI project with Oracle and other partners.

The restructuring allows OpenAI to raise capital for its mission while ensuring the nonprofit’s resources grow proportionally, with plans to use funds for community impact, includin

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By Justin Brodley, Jonathan Baker, Ryan Lucas and Matthew Kohn

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