Reports indicate that Amazon to invest $50B in OpenAI is a possibility currently being negotiated, which would make the e-commerce giant the largest contributor to OpenAI’s massive new funding round. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is in talks to commit this amount as the artificial intelligence company seeks up to $100 billion in total fresh capital, potentially pushing its valuation to roughly $830 billion.
Amazon has entered discussions that would make it one of the largest backers in what could become a record-setting private funding round for OpenAI, according to the Journal. OpenAI is already valued at about $500 billion and is seeking fresh capital to expand computing capacity and advance its AI models.
The Journal reported that Amazon’s potential contribution could reach $50 billion, though the exact size and structure of the investment remain unclear. The talks are ongoing and could still change, the report said.
OpenAI’s fundraising push comes as demand for advanced generative AI systems continues to grow across industries, driving enormous capital needs for data centers, chips and cloud infrastructure. The company has told investors it is looking to raise as much as $100 billion in total, according to multiple media reports.
Talks Could Lift OpenAI Valuation Toward $830B
If completed as envisioned, the new funding round could lift OpenAI’s valuation to roughly $830 billion, placing it among the most valuable private companies in the world. The Journal said the company has signaled to potential backers that the round would be one of the largest ever raised by a startup with Amazon to invest $50B in OpenAI as part of the expected commitments.
The funding is expected to close by the end of the first quarter, according to reporting by The New York Times. The Times said OpenAI has also held talks with several other major players, including Nvidia, Microsoft and SoftBank.
OpenAI has additionally been in discussions with sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East, the Times reported, highlighting the global scale of interest in the company and the intense competition among investors to gain exposure to leading AI developers.
Amazon’s CEO Leads Negotiations With OpenAI
The Journal reported that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is personally leading the talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, underscoring the strategic importance of the potential deal for Amazon.
“Amazon may contribute at least $50 billion” to the funding round, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Neither company has publicly confirmed the negotiations.
Both companies have declined to comment publicly on the reported discussions.
Amazon has steadily increased its focus on artificial intelligence, particularly through its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services, which provides infrastructure to a wide range of AI startups and enterprise customers.
Potential Deal Raises Questions About Anthropic Ties
A partnership between Amazon and OpenAI would be notable given Amazon’s deep ties to Anthropic, a major OpenAI competitor. Amazon has invested at least $8 billion in Anthropic and is its primary cloud and training provider through AWS.The reported talks suggest that Amazon to invest $50B in OpenAI, highlighting the company’s expanding stake in leading AI developers.
Amazon recently opened an $11 billion data center campus in Indiana designed to run Anthropic models exclusively, signaling a long-term commitment to the rival AI company.
The reported talks with OpenAI raise questions about how Amazon would balance relationships with competing AI developers while continuing to position AWS as a neutral platform for building and deploying AI systems.
Analysts say Amazon’s involvement in OpenAI, if finalized, would reflect the escalating arms race among technology giants to secure access to the most advanced AI models and the infrastructure needed to run them at scale.
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