Microsoft–OpenAI Pact Amended, Azure Exclusivity Scrapped After $50 B Amazon Tie-Up

This echoes IBM’s 1980 decision to license, rather than own, MS-DOS—creating a PC software ecosystem that outgrew any single hardware vendor. Big tech’s early, semi-exclusive AI alliances were useful to ignite the generative-AI boom, but history shows such vertical tie-ins rarely survive once markets scale: see AT&T’s 1956 Bell Labs antitrust settlement that opened telecom patents to all. The shift toward multi-cloud access reflects a wider, century-long trend from proprietary networks (railroads, electricity, telephony) to interoperable utility grids where capital intensity forces coopetition. By scrapping the AGI clause and dating rights to 2032, the parties tacitly admit that ‘AGI’ is too fuzzy a milestone for commercial contracts—hinting that future AI governance will rely on regulation, not private triggers. Whether this moment proves pivotal will depend on if open distribution accelerates AI commoditisation; on a 100-year arc, it may resemble the 1911 Standard Oil breakup—reducing one giant’s control yet seeding even larger total market growth.