Amazon in early talks to invest upto $50 billion in OpenAI, expand ties

By Rachel Metz and Matt Day

 

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to invest as much as $50 billion in OpenAI and expand an agreement that involves selling computer power to the AI startup, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. 

 

OpenAI is also weighing a deal in which Amazon would use the startup’s artificial intelligence models, which power the popular ChatGPT chatbot, in its products and platforms, the person said. Amazon’s employees could also access the model for their work.

 

If the negotiations come to fruition, Amazon would contribute as much as half of a fresh funding round that could total up to $100 billion, said the person, asking not to be identified because discussions are private. Other parties that are in talks to contribute to the round include Nvidia Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp., people have said. The round is far from closed and the details could change.

 

 

The negotiations are the latest indication of OpenAI’s heft as a user of cloud services and its own massive costs to build AI tools, which has led Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman to seek investments from Silicon Valley giants, rival technology builders and sovereign wealth funds across the world.

 

An Amazon investment on that scale would tighten the relationship between OpenAI and the e-commerce giant, which is a longtime backer of OpenAI rival Anthropic. It would also mark the latest example of a circular financing deal between a leading AI startup and a supplier of chips and cloud computing.

 

The Wall Street Journal reported the $50 billion figure earlier and said Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy is leading the negotiations with Altman. OpenAI is seeking as much as $100 billion in new capital from investors, the newspaper also reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The company is also preparing for an initial public offering in the fourth quarter of 2026, with executives privately voicing concern that Anthropic could go public first, the Journal reported separately.

 

Amazon and OpenAI declined to comment. 

 

Bloomberg has previously reported that OpenAI was in talks to raise money from Amazon and use the company’s chips as well as to raise as much as $30 billion from existing backer SoftBank.

 

Altman has also been meeting with top investors in the Middle East for a fundraising round that could value the ChatGPT maker at as much as $830 billion.