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Amazon Eyes One of the Largest AI Investments in History

Amazon is in active discussions to invest as much as $50 billion in OpenAI, a move that would rank among the largest single strategic investments ever made in artificial intelligence. People familiar with the matter say the talks are being led directly by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, underscoring how central this potential partnership has become to both companies’ long-term strategies.

While the final amount remains fluid, sources indicate a term sheet could be signed within weeks. The investment, if completed at the upper end of the range, would mark a dramatic escalation of Amazon’s AI ambitions, especially notable given its existing multibillion-dollar backing of OpenAI rival Anthropic.

Amazon declined to comment on the discussions.

Part of a Much Bigger $100 Billion Fundraising Effort

Amazon’s potential commitment is expected to form the cornerstone of a much broader OpenAI fundraising round that could total close to $100 billion.

According to people familiar with the process, OpenAI is structuring the raise in phases. The first wave would likely include strategic partners such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia, followed by financial investors in a second tranche. SoftBank is also in talks about a separate investment that could reach up to $30 billion.

Sam Altman has been actively meeting with global investors to secure backing, including recent discussions in the United Arab Emirates with sovereign wealth funds. The scale of the round reflects OpenAI’s enormous capital needs as it races to expand computing capacity, develop next-generation models, and build global infrastructure.

OpenAI, founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, became a household name in late 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT. Since then, it has grown into one of the world’s most influential AI companies. Its valuation surged to approximately $500 billion in October following a secondary share sale, placing it among the most valuable private firms globally.

A Strategic Pivot for Amazon After Betting Big on Anthropic

The talks are especially striking because Amazon has already invested billions of dollars in Anthropic, a startup founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives and researchers, including CEO Dario Amodei. Anthropic develops the Claude family of AI models and recently closed a multibillion-dollar funding round that valued the company at roughly $350 billion.

Amazon Web Services was named Anthropic’s primary cloud provider in 2023 and became its primary training partner in 2024, cementing a deep technical relationship. AWS also supports Anthropic with custom AI chips and large-scale infrastructure.

Despite that partnership, Amazon has been in discussions with OpenAI since last year about a potential investment. Sources say any deal could include an agreement for OpenAI to use Amazon’s in-house AI chips, further integrating OpenAI workloads into AWS and reducing reliance on third-party hardware suppliers.

If finalized, the OpenAI investment would signal Amazon’s intent to diversify its AI bets rather than relying on a single partner, positioning AWS as a central platform for multiple leading model developers.

Massive Spending, Layoffs, and Data Center Expansion

Amazon’s pursuit of OpenAI comes as the company reshapes its cost structure to prioritize AI.

To fund its aggressive expansion, Amazon has been cutting expenses across its business. On Wednesday, the company announced plans to eliminate about 16,000 corporate roles, marking its second large round of job cuts since October. These reductions follow years of workforce growth during the pandemic era and reflect a broader pivot toward capital-intensive AI infrastructure.

At the same time, Amazon is pouring unprecedented sums into data centers. Last October, it unveiled an $11 billion data center campus in Indiana, known as Project Rainier, built primarily to support Anthropic’s AI training needs. The company also disclosed that it expects capital expenditures to reach approximately $125 billion in 2026, the highest projected spending level among major technology companies at the time.

Those investments span cloud infrastructure, custom silicon, networking, and energy-intensive facilities designed to support large-scale model training and deployment.

Why OpenAI Matters So Much to Amazon

For Amazon, an OpenAI partnership offers more than financial upside.

Securing OpenAI as a major AWS customer would help attract enterprise clients eager to build on the same platforms that power ChatGPT and future OpenAI models. It would also strengthen Amazon’s competitive position against Microsoft, which already has a deep relationship with OpenAI, and against Google, which continues to invest heavily in its own AI stack.

For OpenAI, Amazon brings global cloud scale, advanced data center capabilities, and alternative chip options at a time when demand for AI compute far exceeds supply.

Together, the two companies could accelerate the deployment of generative AI across retail, logistics, enterprise software, and consumer applications, while reshaping how AI infrastructure is funded and operated.

What Comes Next

While negotiations are ongoing and terms could still change, the outline of the deal points to a defining moment in the AI race. A $50 billion investment from Amazon would not only deepen OpenAI’s war chest but also signal a new phase of competition among tech giants to control the future of artificial intelligence.

If completed, the transaction would reinforce a clear message to the market: the next wave of growth in Big Tech will be powered by massive capital commitments to AI, and Amazon intends to be at the center of it.

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