OpenAI pivots to Amazon under new revenue chief

Denise Dresser, who recently took on the revenue chief role at OpenAI, outlined plans to grow the company’s enterprise business by deepening its alliance with Amazon Web Services. In a memo to employees sent Sunday, she said interest in AWS’s Bedrock platform has been “staggering.” Bedrock lets companies run a range of foundation models, including those from OpenAI.

Dresser acknowledged Microsoft’s role in OpenAI’s growth while noting the partnership has constrained sales in some enterprise markets. “Our Microsoft partnership has been foundational to our success. But it has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are, for many that’s Bedrock,” she wrote. She also described OpenAI’s practice of reporting Microsoft revenue as “rev share net,” and said that method aligns with the standards the company would follow as a public company.

Amazon announced plans in late February to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader agreement. OpenAI has also begun routing some processing through other cloud providers, including CoreWeave, Google and Oracle.

Microsoft has been a major investor in OpenAI, contributing more than $13 billion since 2019. The relationship has become more complex: in mid‑2024 Microsoft listed OpenAI among competitors in a regulatory filing. In mid‑April Microsoft made several proprietary models available via its Azure AI Foundry, including MAI‑Transcribe‑1, MAI‑Voice‑1 and MAI‑Image‑2, and is investing about $10 billion to develop AI systems in other countries and to build custom chips, the Maya 200 and Cobalt 200, aimed at lowering operating costs for large models.

Investors and analysts are watching Microsoft’s fiscal third‑quarter 2026 results, due April 29, with attention on Azure growth and adjusted earnings per share estimates around $4.04. Azure growth recently slowed to about 39% year‑over‑year. Microsoft’s capital spending has reached roughly $37.5 billion, partly directed toward internal AI development and related infrastructure.

OpenAI faces competition for enterprise customers from companies such as Anthropic. Dresser disputed a reported $30 billion revenue run rate for Anthropic, saying that figure overstated by about $8 billion because it counts revenue shared with cloud partners differently.

Dresser said enterprise clients now represent about 40% of OpenAI’s total revenue and that she expects enterprise and consumer revenue to be roughly equal by year end. OpenAI and Microsoft continue to work together while each company expands cloud and model options to reach corporate customers on multiple platforms.