The cloud war just got hotter. On July 16, 2025, OpenAI confirmed it will begin running ChatGPT and its API workloads on Google Cloud infrastructure. That’s a direct shift away from its previous reliance on Microsoft Azure. The announcement was posted to OpenAI’s supplier list and verified by multiple outlets. This isn’t a trial. It’s a deployment. Google Cloud will now support ChatGPT Enterprise, Team, and Edu tiers across five regions: the U.S., U.K., Japan, Norway, and the Netherlands. The move signals a tactical pivot in OpenAI’s infrastructure strategy and a major win for Google’s cloud division, which trails behind AWS and Azure in market share but is gaining ground fast.
OpenAI’s compute appetite is massive. CEO Sam Altman said in April, “If anyone has GPU capacity in 100k chunks we can get asap please call!” That wasn’t a joke. The company already locked in a $12 billion deal with CoreWeave and expanded its Stargate data center project with Oracle. Microsoft still holds exclusive rights to OpenAI’s APIs, but its cloud monopoly ended in January. The new model gives Microsoft first refusal, not exclusivity. That opened the door for Google.
The timing follows a breakdown in the Microsoft–OpenAI alliance. Microsoft blocked OpenAI’s $3 billion acquisition of Windsurf, an AI coding startup that competed with GitHub Copilot. Google swooped in and executed a $2.4 billion acquihire, pulling Windsurf’s founders and R&D team into DeepMind. That was a strategic hit. Microsoft now calls OpenAI a competitor. The gloves are off.
Google Cloud’s infrastructure is optimized for AI workloads. It already powers Anthropic’s Claude models. Now it’s hosting ChatGPT. That’s validation. The deal gives OpenAI access to more GPUs, more geographic coverage, and more leverage. It can now pit vendors against each other on price and performance. That’s not just diversification. That’s negotiation power.
The AI arms race is about compute. Whoever controls the chips controls the future. OpenAI is stacking suppliers. Google is stacking wins. Microsoft is watching its grip slip.
Sources:
https://siliconangle.com/2025/07/16/openai-taps-google-cloud-access-much-needed-gpus-chatgpt/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-enlists-google-cloud-power-203511994.html
https://9to5google.com/2025/07/17/chatgpt-will-start-using-googles-cloud-services-openai-confirms/