Microsoft and OpenAI Renew Vows In Efforts to Unlock $100 Billion “Endowment Trick”...

Making deals with the Devil… 

So it appears that Microsoft just renewed vows with OpenAI in what can only be described as staying together “for the kids.” As for the deal itself though? It’s non-binding… which means the marriage is about as certain as Dallas making it to the SuperBowl this year.

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, OpenAI desperately needs Microsoft’s blessing to finish its awkward transition from a nonprofit to full-blown for-profit juggernaut. Which is why Altman’s plan is to keep the nonprofit in charge (to pretend the mission is still about humanity or whatever), then give it an eye-watering $100B endowment that makes it one of the richest charities on Earth… at least on paper. Think “Red Cross with AGI.”

(Source: Wall Street Journal) 

From there, Microsoft and the nonprofit would each snag around 30% of the new for-profit entity, with employees and investors splitting the rest. Sounds great until you remember Elon Musk is out there suing, Meta is lurking, and California and Delaware AGs are sharpening knives to make sure no charitable assets are being funneled into VC pockets. Meanwhile, Nadella is hedging his bets. Sure, Microsoft is still technically Team OpenAI… Copilot, GitHub, 365, the whole nine years… but he’s been secretly playing the field. Anthropic models are already being tested in Office products. xAI is running on Microsoft’s cloud. And Redmond even spun up its own rival lab after Altman’s temporary firing in 2023. Translation: Clippy is gone, but the side pieces are alive and well. 

Which means… which means… OpenAI’s restructure is basically a cash unlock. Sam Altman dangling $19B in funding on the other side of this little corporate gymnastics routine. The endowment trick is supposed to calm regulators while giving VCs the stock exposure they’ve been begging for. If it works, OpenAI graduates from “weird nonprofit cult with profit-sharing units” to a company that could, one day, IPO.

(Source: Giphy) 

As for Microsoft, this keeps it close enough to OpenAI’s tech to milk Copilot and Azure… but the real win is that Nadella no longer has to bet the farm. Anthropic, xAI, and homegrown models are all in rotation. It’s like cheating on your spouse but leaving the toothbrush in the cup… plausible deniability with optionality. 

Meaning, for now… OpenAI gets a lifeline, Microsoft gets optionality, Elon gets to rage-tweet, and we get to watch the weirdest corporate divorce-turned-makeup-s*x in Silicon Valley history. What a time to be alive. 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Microsoft as mentioned in the article.