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Amazon in Talks to Commit $50 Billion to OpenAI
Negotiations Come as OpenAI Pursues Up to $100 billion in New Capital
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a new funding round.
- OpenAI is also holding discussions with Nvidia and SoftBank while seeking up to $100 billion overall.
- Sam Altman is meeting Middle Eastern investors in a round that could value OpenAI at up to $830 billion.
Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to invest as much as $50 billion in OpenAI and to expand the AI startup’s existing deal for computing power.
The ChatGPT maker has held discussions with Amazon, Nvidia Corp. and SoftBank Group Corp. for a new funding round, according to a person familiar with the matter. The round is far from closed and the details could change, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is private.
The negotiations are the latest indication of OpenAI’s heft as a user of cloud services and its own massive costs to build AI tools, which has led CEO Sam Altman to seek investments from Silicon Valley giants, rival technology builders and sovereign wealth funds.
An Amazon investment on that scale would tighten the relationship between OpenAI and the e-commerce giant, which is a longtime backer of OpenAI rival Anthropic. It would also mark the latest example of a circular financing deal between a leading AI startup and a supplier of chips and cloud computing.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 15 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight companies.
The Wall Street Journal reported the $50 billion figure earlier and said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is leading the negotiations with Altman. OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, the newspaper also reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Amazon and OpenAI declined to comment.
Bloomberg has previously reported that OpenAI was in talks to raise money from Amazon and use the company’s chips as well as to raise up to $30 billion from existing backer SoftBank.
Altman has also been meeting with top investors in the Middle East for a fundraising round that could value the ChatGPT maker at as much as $830 billion.
