Jan 21 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) on Tuesday said it

has changed some key terms of a deal with OpenAI after the

ChatGPT creator announced a joint venture with Oracle

and Japan's SoftBank Group to build up to $500 billion

of new AI data centers in the United States.

President Donald Trump gathered the leaders of the

"Stargate" effort at the White House on Tuesday to announce the

deal, saying it was intended to help keep the United States

ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race, using

chips from Nvidia ( NVDA ).

Since 2019, Microsoft ( MSFT ) has had arrangements with OpenAI that

gave the Redmond, Washington-based company the exclusive right

to build new computing infrastructure for OpenAI. Microsoft ( MSFT ), in

a blog post, said it has "approved OpenAI's ability to build

additional capacity, primarily for research and training of

models."

That opened the door for OpenAI to work with Oracle.

A person familiar with the deal said that Stargate is a

joint venture structured as new entity in which OpenAI has an

equity stake, governance rights and operational control. It will

have a separate board appointed by the founding members and its

own CEO, this person said. The venture will also have other

investors including United Arab Emirates firm MGX.

Microsoft ( MSFT ), along with Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Arm, will

be a "technology partner" in the new venture, but is not listed

as an equity funder. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is will be the

entity's board chairman, according to a statement from OpenAI

posted on social media site X.

But Microsoft ( MSFT ) said that it still retains the exclusive right

to offer OpenAI's API - technology shorthand for application

programming interface, which is the main way that software

developers and business customers buy OpenAI's services. That

means Oracle will not be able to host OpenAI's primary source of

revenue.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment

on Microsoft's ( MSFT ) statements.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) said it has "revenue sharing agreements that flow

both ways" with OpenAI.

"The key elements of our partnership remain in place for the

duration of our contract through 2030, with our access to

OpenAI's IP, our revenue sharing arrangements and our

exclusivity on OpenAI's APIs all continuing forward," Microsoft ( MSFT )

said.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) also said "OpenAI recently made a new, large Azure

commitment that will continue to support all OpenAI products as

well as training," referring to Microsoft's ( MSFT ) Azure cloud

computing service.