Tracking the history of the now-deceased OpenAI Microsoft AGI clause

TLDR

• The OpenAI-Microsoft AGI clause, which would have voided Microsoft’s IP rights upon AGI achievement, was quietly killed in the April 27, 2026 partnership restructuring.

Key Takeaways

• The original 2019 agreement gave Microsoft commercial IP rights to OpenAI tech until AGI was achieved, but “AGI” was never concretely defined in the charter.
• By December 2024, leaked documents revealed AGI was contractually pegged to OpenAI generating $100 billion in profit for early investors including Microsoft.
• In October 2025, the AGI trigger process shifted to verification by an independent expert panel, with Microsoft IP rights lasting until panel confirmation or 2030, whichever came first.
• The April 27, 2026 restructuring replaced all of this: Microsoft gets a non-exclusive IP license through 2032, revenue share to OpenAI continues through 2030 “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress.”
• The phrase “independent of OpenAI’s technology progress” signals the AGI clause no longer controls any commercial term in the agreement.

Why It Matters

• The AGI clause was the structural mechanism that could have severed Microsoft’s IP access; its removal makes the partnership purely commercial with fixed terms through 2032.
• The clause’s death means no future AGI declaration, however defined, can now strip Microsoft of its license or alter the revenue split.
• The entire history shows AGI’s definition shifted from philosophical to financial to irrelevant across seven years of negotiations.

Simon Willison, Simon Willison’s Weblog · 2026-04-27 · Read the original