THE WHAT? Amazon is in discussions to invest as much as US$50 billion in OpenAI, marking a potential landmark deal in the rapidly intensifying global race to scale artificial intelligence.

THE DETAILS The talks are being led by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy alongside OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, according to people familiar with the matter. OpenAI is reportedly seeking up to US$100 billion in fresh capital in a funding round that could value the company at as much as US$830 billion.

If completed, Amazon’s investment would make it the largest backer in the round, ahead of SoftBank, which is also in talks to invest up to US$30 billion. OpenAI is additionally courting Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and venture capital investors.

The discussions build on an existing commercial relationship between the two companies. In November, OpenAI agreed to purchase US$38 billion worth of cloud computing services from Amazon Web Services over multiple years, reducing its historical reliance on Microsoft. Amazon has also made significant investments in OpenAI rival Anthropic and continues to pour capital into AI infrastructure while streamlining costs across its wider business.

THE WHY? A major investment in OpenAI would significantly strengthen Amazon’s position in generative AI, reinforcing AWS’s role as a critical infrastructure partner while giving the group deeper strategic exposure to one of the most influential AI platforms globally.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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