Microsoft and OpenAI say their partnership is unchanged

In short: Microsoft and OpenAI said on February 27, 2026 that their partnership is continuing as before, despite talk that Microsoft might move to rivals.

What happened

Microsoft and OpenAI released a joint statement reaffirming their long-running partnership. The companies said there is no change to Microsoft’s exclusive license and access to OpenAI’s intellectual property, which is a legal way of saying Microsoft keeps special rights to use OpenAI’s work.

They also said Microsoft Azure remains the exclusive cloud provider for “stateless OpenAI APIs.” An API is like a drive-through window that lets software request an answer from an AI model, and “stateless” means each request stands alone (like separate questions on separate phone calls). In practice, the statement says that calls to OpenAI models are hosted on Azure, even when OpenAI works with other companies.

OpenAI’s own products, including its Frontier models, will also keep running on Azure. The statement adds that OpenAI can still seek additional computing capacity elsewhere when needed, while Azure continues to be central to big scaling projects such as Stargate.

Why it matters

Many people use AI features inside everyday apps and services, and those features depend on behind-the-scenes deals between companies. This statement suggests customers should not expect sudden changes in where OpenAI services run, or who can build products using OpenAI’s technology. It also pushes back on online speculation that Microsoft is dropping OpenAI, and it matches continued Azure OpenAI updates, including new GPT-Realtime-1.5 and GPT-Audio-1.5 model releases.

Source: Financial Times