Amazon in talks to invest up to $50B in OpenAI as valuation nears $830B
What’s the deal? Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, a move that could make it the largest contributor to the artificial intelligence startup’s current fundraising effort. The discussions are still at an early stage and the final amount could change, according to people familiar with the matter.
OpenAI is looking to raise up to $100 billion in new funding, valuing it at about $830 billion. SoftBank Group is also in talks to invest as much as an additional $30 billion in the startup, reports saidDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Amazon chief executive officer Andy JassyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → is leading the talks with OpenAI chief executive officer Sam AltmanDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Why now? OpenAI’s funding push comes as competition in artificial intelligence intensifies and costs continue to rise.
The company is spending heavily on data centres and computing capacity, including a $10 billion computing deal with Cerebras in January 2026. It is also laying the groundwork for a potential initial public offering that could value it at up to $1 trillion.
For Amazon, a deal would deepen its relationship with OpenAI after the startup agreed in November to buy up to $38 billion of cloud services from Amazon Web ServicesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → over several years.
What could go wrong? An investment of this size would increase Amazon’s exposure to a single, still unprofitable company in a fast-moving market.
The AI sector remains highly competitive, with rivals such as AnthropicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Google investing heavily to win enterprise customers.
The signal: The talks underscore how the AI boom is increasingly being driven by a small group of deep-pocketed technology companies and investors, as the cost of building and running large models pushes funding rounds into unprecedented territory.
As a result, access to capital and strategic partnerships are becoming as important as technical capability in shaping the sector’s leaders.
Sources:
The Wall Street Journal
Reuters
Tech Funding News
CNBC
TechCrunch
Image source:
Fortune
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