Big tech’s AI investment frenzy shows no signs of slowing, with Amazon now in advanced talks for a deal worth over $10 billion in OpenAI—the ChatGPT pioneer—plus commitments to use its custom AI chips, as confirmed by CNBC on Tuesday.
A person familiar with the confidential discussions, speaking anonymously, noted that while details are still fluid, the investment could comfortably exceed that figure. The Information first broke the news.
These negotiations come after OpenAI’s October restructuring, which refined its longstanding Microsoft partnership—now totalling over $13 billion since 2019—and removed Microsoft’s right of first refusal on compute provision, according to an October release. This opens the door for OpenAI to forge broader alliances.
Amazon, already a major backer of OpenAI rival Anthropic with over $8 billion invested, is leveraging its Amazon Web Services chips to power massive model training amid global chip shortages.
The e-commerce giant joins others diversifying bets: Microsoft pledged up to $5 billion in Anthropic last month, matched by Nvidia at $10 billion.
OpenAI’s own infrastructure commitments top $1.4 trillion, spanning Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and a recent $38 billion AWS capacity deal—its first with the cloud leader. October’s $6.6 billion secondary share sale cemented a $500 billion valuation, letting employees cash in.
Such moves signal hyperscalers reshaping AI compute access, potentially alleviating supply constraints as the generative market surges.