According to The Information, TikTok pays Microsoft nearly $20 million per month for access to OpenAI's artificial intelligence models. This amount accounts for nearly a quarter of Microsoft's cloud division revenue, highlighting the growing importance of AI services in the tech industry.
Insiders reveal that as of March this year, TikTok's extensive use of OpenAI models has brought considerable benefits to Microsoft. The report points out that Microsoft's cloud AI business is expected to achieve $1 billion in annual revenue. However, industry insiders believe that if TikTok successfully develops its own large language model (LLM), it may reduce its reliance on Microsoft's AI services.
Last year, media reported that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, was "secretly using" OpenAI's technology to develop its own AI model. This practice is widely considered improper in the AI field and directly violates OpenAI's terms of service, which explicitly prohibit using its model outputs to develop AI models that compete with OpenAI's products and services. Notably, ByteDance acquired the rights to use OpenAI through Microsoft, which also has similar restrictive policies.
After the news broke, OpenAI suspended ByteDance's account to investigate potential violations of developer licenses. ByteDance, on the other hand, stated that they only used the technology "to a very limited extent" to assist in the creation of their own models.
As the exclusive cloud service provider for OpenAI, Microsoft has invested billions of dollars and spent "hundreds of millions" building a supercomputer to support ChatGPT. This strategic partnership has brought significant returns for Microsoft. In the latest fourth-quarter earnings report for 2024, Microsoft announced a 29% growth in Azure cloud service revenue, slightly below the previously expected 30% to 31%. Company CFO Amy Hood anticipates that Azure revenue will maintain a growth momentum of 28% to 29% in the first quarter of 2025.