OpenAI shifts partnerships

OpenAI is leaning harder on Amazon and signalling that Microsoft is no longer its only big commercial backer. (axios.com) Axios reported on April 13 that OpenAI has been telling staff and customers its Amazon partnership opens new enterprise sales channels, while executives have said Microsoft had constrained parts of its go-to-market reach. Microsoft has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI over the years. (axios.com) (pymnts.com) The Amazon tie-up comes less than two months after reports that Amazon planned to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI and expand cloud support for OpenAI models and computing capacity. That would give OpenAI a second hyperscale ally in cloud infrastructure, the business of renting the giant data centers and chips that run artificial intelligence systems. (pymnts.com) (letsdatascience.com) The shift lands as OpenAI is also reworking where it builds physical infrastructure in Europe. On April 9, the company paused its planned “Stargate” data-center project in the United Kingdom, citing industrial power prices and regulation. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) That project had been announced in September with Nvidia and Nscale, and Politico reported it involved exploring leases for up to 8,000 advanced Nvidia chips at British sites including Cobalt Park. OpenAI said it still sees “huge potential” in the United Kingdom even as it put the project on hold. (cnbc.com) (politico.eu) At the same time, OpenAI is expanding its office footprint in London rather than retreating from the country. The company signed a lease for an 88,500-square-foot site in Regent Quarter, King’s Cross, with room for 544 staff and an opening planned for 2027. (cnbc.com) (finance.yahoo.com) OpenAI had already said in February that London would become its largest research hub outside the United States. The new office turns that hiring plan into a long-term property commitment even as the company slows one of its more capital-intensive infrastructure bets. (cnbc.com) (openai.com) The backdrop is a wider scramble among cloud companies and model makers to lock up customers, chips and distribution before an eventual OpenAI public offering. Axios said OpenAI has also been sharply critical of Anthropic in recent internal messaging as competition for enterprise buyers intensifies. (axios.com) For now, the picture is split: more Amazon, less dependence on Microsoft, no British Stargate site yet, and a bigger London base on the way. (axios.com) (cnbc.com)