Microsoft sells OpenAI models in China

Microsoft has become a major reseller of OpenAI models in China, where OpenAI and Anthropic do not sell directly. According to Bloomberg, large Chinese technology firms such as ByteDance, Ant Group, Meituan, and Tencent access these models through Microsoft Azure rather than from the model makers themselves. The report says ByteDance is Microsoft’s largest AI customer in recent years and could spend more than $1 billion a year on Microsoft AI and cloud services. Microsoft has also said its AI business in China has grown quickly, with revenue in the region rising sharply over the past two financial years. The arrangement reflects Microsoft’s special contract with OpenAI, which allows it to set its own terms for overseas sales. Microsoft says it uses monitoring systems and sells to established companies, while OpenAI has expressed concern about possible model distillation and other misuse risks. Microsoft does not host these OpenAI models on servers in China; customers access them through data centres in other countries. The company is also testing Chinese DeepSeek models for use in some of its Western products, highlighting the twoway nature of its AI business.