OpenAI and Google Cloud reach partnership, GPT-6 series and Codex launch on Google Cloud

Wow, GPT is moving into Gemini's house!

Just today, OpenAI and Google Cloud officially announced a partnership:

GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Luna, and Codex will officially launch on Google Cloud.

The first batch of models is already being opened to some enterprise customers, and next they'll also be plugged into Google Antigravity and Gemini Agent.

How did sworn rivals turn into channel partners in the blink of an eye, and start doing business with each other?

More importantly, after Azure and AWS, OpenAI has now officially completed the set of America's three major cloud providers.

OpenAI, once firmly locked inside Azure, is now completely leaving behind the era of exclusive distribution.

Sworn rivals start selling each other's goods

Currently, GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6.1 Sol, and GPT-6 Luna have entered Google Cloud's model garden and opened private previews to some enterprise customers.

Enterprises can call these models directly through Google Cloud's API, or connect local Codex CLI and desktop workflows into Google's Gemini platform, letting Codex complete inference via Google Cloud.

OpenAI says it will roll out a general availability plan in the coming weeks.

What may really hit home for enterprise customers in this partnership are these two points:

1. Enterprises can buy OpenAI's models directly in Google Cloud Marketplace, spending the money in their Google Cloud accounts.

2. Calling costs for different models can be consolidated into the same Google Cloud bill, and can even be included in cross-model Flexible Savings Plans.

This means enterprises can freely switch between the two companies' models in the future, without re-signing contracts or opening separate bills.

When they want to use them, they just check a box in the familiar Google Cloud work environment.

At the same time, enterprises can continue to use Google Cloud's existing data governance, security, and permission control systems; prompts, context, and outputs all stay within the specified data boundaries, and model calls must pass through an isolated gateway and unified identity authentication.

Once OpenAI's models launch on Google Antigravity and Gemini Agent in the future, everyone can flexibly switch models to get work done according to actual needs.

Google Cloud is also quite proud of this, and couldn't resist putting its hands on its hips and showing off in a blog post:

We have become the only hyperscale cloud provider on the market that simultaneously offers the three leading closed-source large models, plus more than 200 self-developed, third-party, and open-source models!

OpenAI completes the three major clouds in half a year

Seeing this, some folks will surely ask:

Wait, wasn't OpenAI previously exclusively tied to Azure?

That's right.

In the past, Azure held the exclusive cloud distribution rights for OpenAI's stateless API.

Even if OpenAI cooperated with other vendors, the relevant API calls still had to run on Azure in principle.

But on April 27 this year, that exclusive tie finally loosened.

Microsoft and OpenAI revised their cooperation agreement and crossed out this exclusivity restriction.

From then on, OpenAI can provide products to customers through any cloud platform, and the OpenAI model and product licenses held by Microsoft also became non-exclusive.

The lock had just opened, and the next day OpenAI slipped into AWS.

On April 28, GPT and Codex quickly moved into Amazon Bedrock.

AWS customers can call the models directly using their existing identity and enterprise control systems, and the related costs can also offset existing cloud spending commitments.

Now, OpenAI has stepped into Google Cloud as well.

From Azure exclusivity, to AWS, and then to Google Cloud, OpenAI took only half a year to spread its models across America's three major cloud providers.

Wherever enterprise business is rooted in a cloud, it follows to set up shop in that cloud, with the motto of going wherever it goes, selling wherever it goes.

At the same time, Microsoft hasn't been left behind by OpenAI.

Under the new April agreement, Microsoft remains OpenAI's primary cloud partner, and OpenAI products will also land on Azure first.

As expected of the first love, its position is rock solid.

It's just that Azure is no longer exclusive, and neighboring AWS and Google Cloud can finally sell the same products.

Models fight hard, cloud providers quietly collect the money

Everyone knows that GPT and Gemini are old rivals, fighting on the arena every day.

So why did OpenAI and Google Cloud suddenly join hands?

Actually, both of them are clicking away at their own little abacuses.

What OpenAI wants is enterprise customers.

Where data is stored, who existing contracts are signed with, and which cloud the security and audit systems run on also directly influence the final choice.

So OpenAI has started drilling in through the customer relationships cloud providers have already paved.

If an enterprise puts its business on Azure, it sells on Azure; if the business runs on AWS, it drills into Bedrock;

if the data is rooted in Google Cloud, it brings GPT and Codex into the model garden.

Customers don't need to detour specifically to OpenAI's own API platform; GPT can enter the places where customers work every day.

What Google Cloud wants is the platform business.

If customers choose Gemini, Google can directly earn money from the model;

if customers choose GPT, even though the model belongs to a rival, Google still keeps Marketplace, cloud infrastructure, data governance, and security services.

In fact, the fiercer the model competition, the more enterprises want to switch back and forth based on different tasks, and the more valuable Google Cloud's model mall becomes.

As for enterprises, what they actually want is just two words: convenience.

No need to move data, no need to change cloud platforms, no need to sign another set of vendor contracts; they can assign different tasks to Gemini, GPT, or Claude based on capability, latency, and cost.

In the past, choosing a model more or less carried a sense of "bet on one family and bring the whole household along";

but now, the same cloud platform has a whole row of shelves set out, and you can click whichever works best and switch to whichever is cheaper, which is really much more convenient.

Reuters also summarized it as a broader industry trend:

Hyperscale cloud providers like Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud are becoming the most important commercial distribution channels for frontier model labs.

Among them, model companies are responsible for making the goods and competing on capability;

cloud providers are responsible for holding enterprise customers, procurement entrances, and billing systems, and then taking a cut from every transaction.

So on the model arena, GPT and Gemini will still have to fight in the future;

but off the arena, Google Cloud has already quietly set up a shelf for GPT.

Competition is competition, business is business; these Silicon Valley folks really are better than one another at making a living (doge).

One More Thing

Funny enough, the hands that should be held have been held, but the fights that should be fought haven't decreased at all between those two clowns, Altman and Pichai.

Not long ago, Altman was still being sarcastic:

Google is just bolting AI onto old products like Search; OpenAI's AI-native products built from the ground up are the real way.

In the blink of an eye, Pichai fired back hard on the same Alex Kantrowitz podcast:

Gemini App was an AI product built from scratch in the first place.

By that logic, everyone is now stuffing Agents into products; isn't OpenAI also bolting Agents onto ChatGPT?

The boomerang had just flown one circle, and the next day, GPT was served up on Google Cloud.

Hmm... you two just keep loving and fighting like this.

Source: QbitAI Risk Disclosure and Disclaimer

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