Key Points

  • Revenue chief Denise Dresser distributed an internal staff memo highlighting the Amazon partnership as crucial for enterprise expansion
  • Dresser indicated the Microsoft partnership created barriers to reaching enterprise customers on their preferred platforms
  • Amazon revealed its intention to commit up to $50 billion to OpenAI at the end of February 2026
  • Enterprise operations contribute 40% of total revenue and are projected to equal consumer revenue by year’s conclusion
  • Dresser challenged Anthropic’s approach, describing it as founded on “fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI”

Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, distributed an internal communication to employees on Sunday, highlighting the company’s recent Amazon alliance and addressing how the existing Microsoft arrangement has created challenges for expansion.

The communication, obtained by CNBC, arrived approximately six weeks following Amazon’s announcement of plans to commit up to $50 billion to OpenAI through a strategic alliance.

“Our Microsoft partnership has been foundational to our success. But it has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock,” Dresser wrote.

Amazon Web Services’ Bedrock platform enables organizations to access leading AI models, including those from OpenAI, via a unified cloud infrastructure. OpenAI reported that interest following the Amazon announcement has been “frankly staggering.”

Microsoft has contributed over $13 billion to OpenAI beginning in 2019. While both parties characterize the relationship as foundational and strategic, each has ventured into overlapping markets. Microsoft included OpenAI among its competitors in a 2024 annual filing.

OpenAI has begun collaborating with additional cloud service providers such as CoreWeave, Google, and Oracle to expand infrastructure capacity.

Enterprise Competition Intensifies

OpenAI is accelerating its enterprise market penetration, a segment where Anthropic’s Claude model has established significant traction. Google Gemini is similarly pursuing opportunities in this domain.

Dresser informed CNBC earlier this month that enterprise operations now represent 40% of OpenAI’s overall revenue. She projected that enterprise revenue would match consumer revenue by year’s end.

During the AI industry conference HumanX in San Francisco last week, Glean CEO Arvind Jain characterized the enthusiasm for Anthropic’s Claude as “Claude mania,” stating “it has become a religion.”

OpenAI Challenges Anthropic’s Approach

Dresser utilized the communication to challenge Anthropic directly, characterizing its methodology as founded on “fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI.”

She further stated that Anthropic committed a “strategic misstep to not acquire enough compute.” A separate OpenAI communication to investors on Thursday indicated Anthropic is “operating on a meaningfully smaller curve.”

Anthropic revealed a compute arrangement with Google and Broadcom for “multiple gigawatts” earlier this month.

OpenAI achieved a valuation exceeding $850 billion during a late March funding round. Anthropic reached a $380 billion valuation one month prior. Both organizations are considering potential IPOs this year.

Dresser joined as chief revenue officer in December. Her background includes serving as CEO of Slack and holding leadership positions at Salesforce.

She concluded the communication by telling staff: “The market is ours to win, let’s execute accordingly.”