Microsoft generated $10 billion in revenue from its commercial arrangements with OpenAI in the quarter ended September 30, the company said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. That figure covers revenue-sharing payments and related commercial deals, and it represents nearly 11% of Microsoft’s total quarterly revenue of $92.3 billion.
Microsoft and OpenAI (Credits: TechCrunch)
The scale of the number underlines just how financially intertwined the two companies remain, even as they increasingly compete for the same customers. For the full 2026 fiscal year, revenue from OpenAI reached $24.1 billion. At the latest quarterly pace, Microsoft would pull in roughly $40 billion a year from OpenAI-related arrangements.
Microsoft OpenAI revenue breakdown
Microsoft did not break down exactly how much of the $10 billion came from revenue-sharing payments versus Azure cloud services, and TechCrunch has sought further detail. That distinction matters: revenue sharing reflects OpenAI’s success as a product company, while Azure income reflects Microsoft’s role as its infrastructure provider. Both streams, however, point in the same direction, toward a partnership that is still enormously valuable to Microsoft’s bottom line.
The company also reported $7.2 billion in outstanding receivables from OpenAI at the end of September, up from $6 billion at the end of June. That money represents amounts OpenAI owes for previous transactions, not additional revenue, but the rising balance is another sign of how much business flows between the two firms each quarter.
Microsoft’s financial year begins in July, which makes the quarter ended September 30, 2026 the first quarter of its fiscal 2027. The OpenAI revenue therefore lands at the very start of a new reporting year, setting a high bar for the quarters that follow.
Microsoft and OpenAI partnership loosens but stays lucrative
The two companies began loosening their once-exclusive partnership in October 2025, when Microsoft relinquished its hold on OpenAI to give the startup more freedom to work with other cloud providers. In exchange, OpenAI committed to buying an additional $250 billion in Azure services under that October 2025 agreement.
Microsoft’s ownership stake in OpenAI has also drifted down, from about 25% in June to 24% in September, continuing a gradual decline from roughly 27% after the October 2025 recapitalisation. Microsoft did not specify what caused the latest dilution.
Taken together, the filing tells a story of a partnership that is less exclusive but no less lucrative. OpenAI has more freedom, Microsoft has a slightly smaller stake, and yet the money flowing between them has never been larger. For investors, that $10 billion quarterly figure is now the clearest single measure of how much Microsoft’s AI bet is actually worth.
Also Read: Parents Sue OpenAI Alleging GPT-4o Coached Daughter Off Seizure Medication, Meta AI Director Rohit Patel Leaves to Take on Microsoft Office and Google Workspace
Source: TechCrunch AI — read the full story there.
