Microsoft reveals true OpenAI investment: more than $100 billion
Microsoft has disclosed the real scale of its OpenAI spending: more than $100 billion as of June 2026. That is seven times the official figure of $13 billion. The total covers both capital invested in OpenAI's development and the ongoing cost of using its technology. The figure came out in court proceedings.
AI-processed from 3DNews AI; edited by Hamidun News
Microsoft has disclosed the true size of its investment in OpenAI, which exceeded $100 billion by June 2026. That is seven times the officially stated $13 billion, a figure the company has cited since early 2023.
How investors count the spending
On the surface the numbers look contradictory, but they reflect different ways of counting. When Microsoft cites $13 billion, it mainly means direct capital investment in OpenAI. The real costs are much broader: they include not only equity and loans, but also operating expenses for using OpenAI technology in Microsoft's own products and services.
Microsoft builds OpenAI models and APIs into all its platforms, from the Azure cloud service to office apps such as Word and Excel. That requires continuous payments for model queries, compute resources and infrastructure for integration. Add it all up, capital investment plus ongoing costs, and the total reaches $100 billion over three and a half years.
What the total includes
- Direct capital investment in OpenAI's development
- Payments for using models and APIs in cloud services
- Cloud infrastructure costs for integrating the technology
- Development of Microsoft's own copilots and assistants
- Licensing and technology partnerships
Disclosure in court proceedings
The information surfaced unexpectedly: the company stated the figure in court, not in an official press release. That suggests Microsoft takes its AI investments seriously and is ready to defend its interests in OpenAI on legal grounds. The sheer size of the sum also shows the priority the IT giant gives to its partnership with the makers of ChatGPT.
What this means
For the market, it is a signal: investment in AI startups may be orders of magnitude larger than public statements suggest. The race among tech companies for leadership in generative AI is considerably more expensive than analysts and investors assume. Microsoft is betting on OpenAI and is ready to pay big for access to cutting-edge models and future technological breakthroughs.
- Nov 2, 2026Arca gives AI agents finance tasks lasting up to 10 days, but leaves the trades to humans
- Nov 2, 2026Meta's Muse assistant keeps dossiers on loved ones and gets root on Ubuntu by default
- Nov 1, 2026Local models lose to Opus and Codex: 0.21 on a MacBook versus 1.00 for Codex
- Nov 1, 2026Kimi scores 96.2% on a 1C database analytics test and emerges as a fallback if Claude access is blocked
Key Questions Answered
How investors count the spending?
On the surface the numbers look contradictory, but they reflect different ways of counting. When Microsoft cites $13 billion, it mainly means direct capital investment in OpenAI. The real costs are much broader: they include not only equity and loans, but also operating expenses for using OpenAI technology in Microsoft's own products and services. Microsoft builds OpenAI models and APIs into all its platforms, from the Azure cloud service to office apps such as Word and Excel. That requires continuous payments for model queries, compute resources and infrastructure for inte
What the total includes?
Direct capital investment in OpenAI's development Payments for using models and APIs in cloud services Cloud infrastructure costs for integrating the technology Development of Microsoft's own copilots and assistants Licensing and technology partnerships
What are the key details on Disclosure in court proceedings?
The information surfaced unexpectedly: the company stated the figure in court, not in an official press release. That suggests Microsoft takes its AI investments seriously and is ready to defend its interests in OpenAI on legal grounds. The sheer size of the sum also shows the priority the IT giant gives to its partnership with the makers of ChatGPT.
Test Frontier LLMs & Autonomous Agents in One Workspace
Run Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-6, Gemini 3.1, and DeepSeek side-by-side in Nomad AI (nomadnet.ai) — unified model routing, deep research, and multimodal workflows under one subscription.
The AI world, distilled — once a week
Seven stories that actually mattered, hand-picked. No noise, no reposts, no press releases.
Done! Check your inbox for a confirmation.