OpenAI reportedly eyes $100B AWS deal

OpenAI did not unveil a new $100 billion Amazon Web Services pact this week. The $100 billion figure was disclosed on February 27, when OpenAI and Amazon announced a broader strategic partnership. (openai.com) That February deal said OpenAI would expand an existing $38 billion AWS agreement by another $100 billion over eight years. Amazon also said it would invest $50 billion in OpenAI, starting with $15 billion up front and another $35 billion when conditions are met. (openai.com) (aboutamazon.com) The same announcement gave AWS a specific commercial role: Amazon became the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI Frontier, an enterprise platform for building and managing AI agents. OpenAI also said it would use about 2 gigawatts of Amazon Trainium capacity for Frontier, a stateful runtime environment, and other workloads. (openai.com) (aboutamazon.com) What changed this week was OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft. On April 27, Microsoft and OpenAI said Microsoft would no longer have the exclusive right to sell OpenAI’s models, clearing the way for OpenAI to work with cloud rivals including Amazon. (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) Reuters reported that the revised Microsoft agreement removed a legal overhang created by the Amazon tie-up. Under the Amazon arrangement, OpenAI’s AWS commitment was set to grow by $100 billion beyond the existing $38 billion contract over eight years. (reuters.com) (finance.yahoo.com) Amazon moved quickly after that change. On April 29, AWS began offering OpenAI models on Amazon Bedrock, one day after Microsoft’s exclusivity ended, according to The Next Web and NBC News. (thenextweb.com) (nbcnews.com) So the core claim circulating online is partly right and partly off on timing. OpenAI does have a disclosed $100 billion AWS expansion, but it dates to February, and this week’s actual news was Microsoft stepping aside so OpenAI could use deals like that more freely. (openai.com) (reuters.com) The result is a more multi-cloud OpenAI, with Azure still described as its primary cloud partner while AWS gets a large infrastructure commitment and a defined enterprise distribution lane. The numbers involved are $38 billion already signed, $100 billion added over eight years, and $50 billion of Amazon investment. (reuters.com) (openai.com) That makes the story less about a surprise new deal and more about a February agreement becoming newly actionable after an April contract rewrite. The cloud fight changed this week; the $100 billion number did not. (reuters.com) (openai.com)