OpenAI Closes Record $110B Funding Round
OpenAI has closed a historic $110 billion funding round backed by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, valuing the company at $730 billion. As part of the deal, Amazon Web Services will become the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI’s “Frontier” models through a new strategic partnership. The capital is aimed at accelerating OpenAI’s goal to “scale AI for everyone” through investments in infrastructure and research.
This record-breaking funding round is composed of a $50 billion investment from Amazon, $30 billion from Nvidia, and another $30 billion from SoftBank. The new capital elevates OpenAI's pre-money valuation to $730 billion, a significant leap from its $500 billion valuation in a secondary financing deal in October 2025. The partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) establishes it as the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI's "Frontier" enterprise platform. Frontier is designed to allow large companies to build and manage their own AI agents, treating them like "AI coworkers" with specific permissions and business context. Early adopters of the Frontier platform include major companies like HP, Intuit, Oracle, State Farm, and Uber. A key component of the AWS collaboration is the joint development of a "Stateful Runtime Environment" within Amazon Bedrock. This technology is designed to give AI agents a persistent memory, allowing them to maintain context across multiple interactions and complex tasks, a significant upgrade from current "stateless" models that treat each query as a new event. As part of the deal, OpenAI will also utilize 2 gigawatts of AWS's custom Trainium AI chips. Nvidia's $30 billion investment is tightly integrated with OpenAI's commitment to use its next-generation "Vera Rubin" GPU architecture. OpenAI will utilize 5 gigawatts of computing capacity on these systems, which are expected to come online in the second half of 2026. SoftBank's $30 billion contribution aligns with its publicly stated goal of leading in the era of "artificial super intelligence." This investment deepens its involvement in OpenAI's ambitious "Stargate Project," a joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle, and others to invest up to $500 billion in building a global network of AI data centers. The "Stargate" initiative, first announced in January 2025, aims to construct a massive AI infrastructure, with data centers already planned or under construction in the United States, the UAE, Norway, the UK, and Argentina. The project's goal is to dramatically expand the global computing capacity required to train and operate advanced AI models. While the funding solidifies OpenAI's immediate financial footing for its massive compute contracts with Microsoft and Oracle, some analysts have raised concerns about the trend of "circular" financing in the AI industry, where companies invest in their largest customers. The deal also intensifies the competitive landscape, positioning OpenAI more strongly against rivals like Google and Anthropic.
