OpenAI is in discussions with Amazon about a major investment that could exceed $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are still fluid and the final size of the deal has not been set.
The potential agreement would also involve OpenAI using Amazon’s custom AI chips, strengthening ties between the ChatGPT maker and Amazon Web Services as competition for AI infrastructure intensifies.
The talks come after OpenAI’s October restructuring, which gave the company more freedom to raise capital and partner beyond Microsoft. While Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019, it no longer has the right of first refusal as OpenAI’s sole compute provider.
Amazon has already poured at least $8 billion into Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals, but the new talks signal Amazon’s push to broaden its exposure to generative AI. Other tech giants are doing the same. Microsoft recently announced up to $5 billion in Anthropic investment, while Nvidia plans up to $10 billion.
AWS has been developing its own AI chips for years, including Inferentia and the latest Trainium processors, which are increasingly critical as demand for compute explodes.
OpenAI has also been locking in massive infrastructure capacity, committing over $1.4 trillion in recent months across partners such as Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Last month, it signed a $38 billion deal with AWS for cloud capacity, its first major contract with Amazon.
In October, OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion secondary share sale, valuing the company at $500 billion, underscoring how aggressively investors are betting on the future of artificial intelligence.
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