In a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 28, 2026, Microsoft reported that it recognized $10 billion in revenue from commercial agreements with OpenAI during the quarter ended September 30, including revenue sharing. This figure corresponds to nearly 11% of Microsoft’s total revenue of $92.3 billion for the same quarter.
Because Microsoft’s fiscal year begins in July, the quarter ended September 30, 2026, is the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. At its current scale, revenue from OpenAI has become a significant cash flow in the public company’s financial statements, even though this stems from a partnership rather than an independent business line.
$24.1 billion for the full fiscal year 2026
For the entirety of fiscal year 2026, cumulative revenue from OpenAI reached $24.1 billion. If it maintains the momentum of the past quarter, Microsoft could generate around $40 billion annually from these agreements.
There are two items that can easily be misinterpreted. First, accounts receivable from OpenAI at the end of September stood at $7.2 billion, up from $6 billion at the end of June, but this is money OpenAI still owes for prior transactions, not incremental revenue. Second, Microsoft does not clearly break down how much comes from revenue sharing versus how much comes from OpenAI paying for Azure cloud services.
Regarding the sharing ratio, TechCrunch cited leaked 2025 documents indicating that Microsoft received $865.8 million in net revenue sharing during the first nine months of that year. Some reports suggest OpenAI shares 20% of its revenue with Microsoft, but neither party has officially confirmed this figure.
Two companies both competing and dependent
The relationship between the two parties has evolved across several milestones. In October 2025, Microsoft relinquished its exclusivity rights so that OpenAI could partner with other cloud providers, in exchange for OpenAI committing to purchase an additional $250 billion in Azure services. In April 2026, both sides agreed that OpenAI would continue sharing revenue with Microsoft through 2030, subject to a cap.
Microsoft’s ownership stake in OpenAI fell from about 25% in June to 24% in September, continuing a downward trend from approximately 27% following the October 2025 restructuring. Microsoft did not cite a reason for the dilution.
Meanwhile, the two companies are increasingly competing directly. Microsoft is training its sales team to address the weaknesses of OpenAI and Anthropic, while OpenAI is expanding its enterprise business with its own products. The degree of financial dependency remains substantial, but it is no longer accompanied by the exclusivity of the past.
Putting the numbers into context
The $10 billion quarterly figure can easily appear more striking than it actually is when viewed in isolation. OpenAI’s own annualized run-rate revenue was reported at nearly $50 billion in October, lower than the $70 billion previously cited in media reports, and this gap relates to how comparisons with Anthropic are made. If the majority of OpenAI’s revenue derives from infrastructure agreements with Microsoft itself, cash flows between the two sides are circulating internally rather than expanding into new markets.
Looking at Anthropic, the dependency structure is similar, as Amazon holds a dominant position in the IPO filing with a $110 billion spending commitment for AWS. What will be worth watching in the coming quarters is whether revenue from OpenAI continues to climb linearly or levels off as cloud contracts enter the implementation phase.