Leaked financial documents have pulled back the curtain on the massive financial relationship between OpenAI and its primary investor and partner, Microsoft. According to a report by tech blogger Ed Zitron, the AI pioneer paid Microsoft $865.8 million in revenue share during the first three quarters of 2025 alone, a significant increase from the $493.8 million paid for the entirety of 2024.
The Billion-Dollar Partnership
The payments are reportedly part of a deal where OpenAI shares approximately 20% of its revenue with Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion into the AI company. While neither company has officially confirmed this percentage, it provides a rare glimpse into the financial mechanics of one of tech’s most pivotal partnerships.
Based on this 20% figure, OpenAI’s revenue can be estimated at a minimum of $2.5 billion in 2024 and an impressive $4.3 billion in just the first nine months of 2025. These figures align with previous reports and recent statements from CEO Sam Altman, who suggested the company’s annualized revenue run rate would exceed $20 billion by the end of the year.
A Two-Way Financial Street
The financial arrangement is more complex than a simple one-way payment. Sources indicate that Microsoft also shares revenue back with OpenAI from products that leverage its technology, such as Bing and the Azure OpenAI Service.
The leaked payment figures reportedly represent Microsoft’s net revenue share, meaning the amounts it pays back to OpenAI have already been deducted. This detail suggests the gross payments from OpenAI to Microsoft are even higher than the leaked numbers show.
Skyrocketing Revenue and Costs
While revenues are soaring, so are the operational costs. The documents estimate OpenAI’s spending on inference—the computing power used to run its AI models and generate responses—at a staggering $3.8 billion in 2024, which ballooned to $8.7 billion in the first three quarters of 2025.
This highlights the immense capital required to operate at the frontier of AI development. While OpenAI primarily relies on Microsoft Azure for its compute needs, it also works with providers like CoreWeave, Oracle, AWS, and Google Cloud to manage the demand.
Relevance for MENA’s AI Ecosystem
This revelation offers a crucial perspective for the MENA region’s burgeoning AI sector. For founders and VCs, it underscores the astronomical cost of building and scaling foundational AI models, reinforcing the capital-intensive nature of competing at a global level.
The deep financial integration between OpenAI and Microsoft serves as a powerful case study in strategic partnerships. As MENA governments and corporations push for AI sovereignty, this dynamic highlights the importance of securing massive compute resources, either through building proprietary data centers—a key focus in Saudi Arabia and the UAE—or forging deep, strategic alliances with hyperscale cloud providers. It sets a stark benchmark for the level of investment required to not only innovate but also sustain leadership in the AI race.
About OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Its mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—AI systems that are generally smarter than humans—benefits all of humanity. The company is known for its groundbreaking models, including GPT-4 and DALL-E, which power a wide range of applications and services globally.
Source: Tech in Asia
