Amazon Backs OpenAI's $110B Round
OpenAI's record-breaking $110 billion funding round is being supercharged by Big Tech. Amazon has committed up to $50 billion and formed a strategic partnership to make AWS the backbone for OpenAI's enterprise services. The massive round, which also includes Nvidia and SoftBank, reportedly values the company at over $700 billion pre-money.
This latest funding round catapults OpenAI's valuation to a staggering $840 billion. The massive $110 billion infusion is one of the largest private capital raises on record and signals a continued AI investment race, despite recent fears of a valuation bubble. Amazon's $50 billion commitment is structured with an initial $15 billion investment, with the remaining $35 billion to follow as certain conditions are met. This investment is part of a multi-year strategic partnership to accelerate AI innovation for enterprises and consumers. The partnership designates Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI's "Frontier" platform, which allows organizations to build and manage teams of AI agents. The two companies will also co-create a "Stateful Runtime Environment" on Amazon Bedrock, enabling developers to build large-scale generative AI applications. As part of the deal, OpenAI is significantly expanding its cloud spending with Amazon. An existing $38 billion agreement is being increased by an additional $100 billion over the next eight years. This includes a commitment for OpenAI to use 2 gigawatts of computing capacity from Amazon's custom Trainium AI chips. Nvidia and SoftBank are the other major contributors to this round, each investing $30 billion. For SoftBank, this brings its total investment in OpenAI to $64.6 billion, representing a 13% ownership stake. Nvidia's investment tightens its relationship with one of its largest customers. This funding is critical for OpenAI to cover the immense costs of computing power and research and development as it competes with rivals like Anthropic and Google. The company is targeting approximately $600 billion in total computing spending through 2030. The collaboration with Amazon also signals OpenAI's move to diversify its infrastructure beyond its once-exclusive ties with Microsoft. Despite the new Amazon partnership, both OpenAI and Microsoft have stated that their existing partnership remains "strong and central." This massive influx of capital comes ahead of an anticipated mega-IPO for OpenAI, which could happen as early as this year. The company, which is not yet profitable, reportedly generated $13 billion in revenue in 2025 and has nearly one billion weekly users of ChatGPT.
