OpenAI pursues $100B funding round at $830B valuation as Amazon investment talks intensify

OpenAI is reportedly trying to raise $100B at an $830B valuation | TechCrunch

OpenAI is in talks to raise up to $100 billion in a funding round that could value the ChatGPT maker at up to $830 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources. The company is aiming to raise the funding by the end of the calendar first quarter next year, and it may ask sovereign wealth funds to invest in the round, the WSJ reported. The Information first reported news of the deal, though it said the fundraise would land OpenAI a $750 billion price tag. The funding would come as OpenAI commits to spend trillions of dollars and strikes deals around the world as the company tries to stay ahead in the race to develop AI technology. The cash injection would also help the company with its spending on inferencing, which seems to be funded more by cash than cloud credits, suggesting the company's compute costs have grown beyond what partnerships and credits can subsidize. And, as competition intensifies from rivals like Anthropic and Google, OpenAI has had to step on the gas to release new models and expand its presence in the developer and tooling ecosystem. Meanwhile, broader sentiment around AI has recently cooled as investors start doubting whether the pace of debt-fueled investment by giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and OpenAI itself can be maintained in the long run. It also doesn't help that the production of chips is being constrained by shortages in the supply of memory chips, which threatens to affect the broader tech sector. OpenAI has also been rumored to be working on an IPO as a way to raise tens of billions and fund its development efforts, which are currently said to be generating annual run-rate revenue of about $20 billion. There are also rumors that the company is courting Amazon for a $10 billion investment that would also give the AI lab access to the tech giant's new AI computing chips. If the fundraise happens, it would add a substantial amount to OpenAI's coffers, which currently have more than $64 billion, according to PitchBook data. The company was most recently valued at about $500 billion in a secondary transaction. OpenAI did not immediately return a request for comment.

Amazon reportedly in talks to invest $10B in OpenAI as circular deals stay popular | TechCrunch

Amazon is in early discussions to invest as much as $10 billion in OpenAI in a deal that would see the AI lab using the e-commerce giant's AI chips, CNBC reported. If it materializes, the deal would value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source. Amazon has been looking to diversify its bets in the AI race, which has so far seen it partner up and invest $8 billion in Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI. The e-commerce giant earlier this month also unveiled the latest iteration in its Trainium series of chips, and outlined the development of the next installment of those chips, complementing its cloud computing offerings via Amazon Web Services. News of the deal comes a couple months after OpenAI completed its transition to a for-profit model, which gives it more freedom to strike deals with investors other than Microsoft, one of the company's earliest backers with a stake of 27%. Amazon investing in OpenAI would mark the latest in a series of circular deals in the AI space -- major hardware manufacturers and cloud providers strike deals with young AI companies to use their products, while the upstarts commit to using their data centers and chips for training their AI models. This past March, OpenAI invested $350 million of equity into CoreWeave, which used the funds to buy chips from its backer Nvidia. Those same chips provide compute to OpenAI, which increases CoreWeave's revenue and in the end makes OpenAI's stake more valuable. Then in October, OpenAI signed a deal to pick up a 10% stake in AMD and committed to using the chipmaker's AI GPUs, and also signed a chip usage agreement with Broadcom that month. And in November, the ChatGPT maker signed a $38 billion cloud computing deal with Amazon. OpenAI and Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

OpenAI May Raise $10 Billion From Amazon, The Information Says

OpenAI is in initial discussions to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon.com Inc. and use its chips, a potential win for the online retailer's effort to broaden its AI industry presence and compete with Nvidia Corp. The deal under discussion could value OpenAI north of $500 billion and see it adopt Amazon's Trainium chip, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking to remain anonymous to describe private negotiations. Talks, however, are at a preliminary stage and terms could change, the person added.

Amazon in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI and supply its Trainium chips

Amazon is in discussions with OpenAI to invest $10 billion in the company while supplying more of its AI chips and cloud computing services, according to The Financial Times. The deal would push OpenAI's valuation over $500 billion but is likely to raise more questions about the company's circular investment agreements involving chips and data centers. The two companies are also in talks about the possibility of OpenAI helping Amazon with its online marketplace, similar to deals it has made with Etsy, Shopify and Instacart. However, any agreement still wouldn't allow Amazon to market OpenAI's most advanced models on its developer cloud platform, as Microsoft holds the exclusive rights to those until the 2030s. OpenAI recently restructured its agreement with Microsoft to allow it to use data center capacity from other suppliers. Around the same time, it made a string of deals with NVIDIA, Oracle, AMD and others to build out data center capacity and acquire or rent AI chips. The new deal would require OpenAI to use Amazon's Trainium AI chips and rent more data center capacity from Amazon Web Services (AWS). That's on top of the $38 billion that OpenAI has already committed to renting servers from AWS over the next seven years. These deals have sounded alarms among investors considering their circular nature. In many of those, including this latest Amazon deal, OpenAI is taking investment money and then sending that cash back to the same company for infrastructure or chips. And the amounts are staggering, with just two companies, Softbank and Oracle, spending a combined $400 billion on new data centers for OpenAI's compute needs. And so far, OpenAI has lost more money than it makes.

OpenAI in talks with Amazon about investment that could exceed $10 billion

The details are fluid and still subject to change but the investment could exceed $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are confidential. The Information first reported on the potential deal. The discussions come after OpenAI completed a restructuring in October and formally outlined the details of its partnership with Microsoft, giving it more freedom to raise capital and partner with companies across the broader AI ecosystem. Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and backed the company since 2019, but it no longer has a right of first refusal to be OpenAI's compute provider, according to an October release. OpenAI can now also develop some products with third parties. Amazon has invested at least $8 billion into OpenAI rival Anthropic, but the e-commerce giant could be looking to expand its exposure to the booming generative AI market. Microsoft has taken a similar step and announced last month that it will invest up to $5 billion into Anthropic, while Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion in the startup. Amazon Web Services has been designing its own AI chips since around 2015, and the hardware has become crucial for AI companies that are trying to train models and meet growing demand for compute. AWS announced its Inferentia chips in 2018, and the latest generation of its Trainium chips earlier this month. OpenAI has made more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure commitments in recent months, including agreements with chipmakers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom. Last month, OpenAI signed a deal to buy $38 billion worth of capacity from AWS, its first contract with the leader in cloud infrastructure leader. In October, OpenAI finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a $500 billion valuation.

Amazon in talks to invest $10bn in developer of ChatGPT

OpenAI seeking to strike latest deal in its efforts to pay for huge spending on datacentres Amazon is in talks to invest more than $10bn (£7.5bn) in OpenAI, in the latest funding deal being struck by the startup behind ChatGPT. If it goes ahead, the market valuation of OpenAI could rise above $500bn, according to The Information, a tech news site that revealed the negotiations. Amazon, which is best known as an online retailer, is also the world's largest datacentre provider and its investment would help OpenAI pay for its commitments to rent capacity from cloud computing companies - including Amazon. OpenAI said last month that it would spend $38bn on capacity from Amazon Web Services - the company's datacentre arm - over seven years. The Information said that OpenAI planned to use Amazon's Trainium chips, which compete with Nvidia and Google's chips. It also reported that Amazon's financing could lead to a broader fundraising round with other investors. OpenAI's spending commitment on compute - the chips and servers that power its chatbot - is $1.4tn over the next eight years, a figure far in excess of its reported $13bn in annual revenues. As a result, the lossmaking company has been seeking further funding and has converted its main business into a for-profit corporation. Its main longtime backer, Microsoft, has taken a stake of roughly 27% in a deal that valued OpenAI at $500bn. OpenAI is also considering an initial public offering - selling its shares to the general public - in a move that could value the company at up to $1tn, according to Reuters. Other deals struck by OpenAI this year include Oracle spending $300bn on building datacentres in Texas, New Mexico, Michigan and Wisconsin. OpenAI is expected to pay back roughly the same amount to use the sites. In another transaction with Nvidia, OpenAI will pay in cash for chips and Nvidia will invest in OpenAI for non-controlling shares. OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it had hired the former UK chancellor George Osborne to develop relationships with governments around the world and broker national-level AI projects. Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, has declared a "code red" staff alert to lead a fightback against competitors led by Google, whose update of its Gemini AI tool gave it an edge over rivals including ChatGPT. The Amazon talks reportedly include discussing commercial opportunities and selling a corporate version of ChatGPT to the online retailer. OpenAI declined to comment. Amazon has been approached for comment.

Experts say Amazon is playing the long game with its potential $10 billion OpenAI deal: 'ChatGPT is still seen as the Kleenex of AI' | Fortune

These days, the OpenAI investment news cycle feels like the most expensive game of musical chairs ever played. And this week, there's a new player scrambling for a seat. Amazon is in talks to invest at least $10 billion in OpenAI, according to a report from The Information, in a deal that could push the value of the startup past $500 billion. Analysts say the deal looks like a marriage of necessity: OpenAI needs help funding its enormous burn rate while Amazon needs proof that its custom Trainium chips matter in a world still dominated by Nvidia. According to two veteran industry watchers -- Charles Fitzgerald, a cloud infrastructure investor, former Microsoft employee and self-described "capex obsessive," and Anshel Sag, a principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy -- the Amazon talks look less like a partnership and more like a framework. But even the framework shows how OpenAI has the capacity to set the rules of the AI economy, using vendors as financiers and its own scale and urgency as leverage in negotiations. To understand the deal, follow the money -- or, more precisely, the absence of it. "This is a fake deal" Fitzgerald points out that OpenAI does not have the cash to honor the $38 billion cloud-spending commitment it announced with Amazon earlier this year -- let alone a "fraction of a percentage" to the more than $1 trillion in aggregate spending commitments it has floated across cloud providers, chipmakers and infrastructure partners. "This is a fake deal," Fitzgerald told Fortune, plainly. "Or, more politely, it's a framework."That is where the new $10 billion comes in. In Fitzgerald's view, the investment functions less like traditional venture capital and more like a financing scheme designed to paper over that gap. "If OpenAI wins the lottery, then they'd have the money to pay for this," he said. "In practice, the deal will be much, much smaller." The mechanics of what some have called the "circular" trade are simple, if quite dizzying: Amazon would move $10 billion from its balance sheet to OpenAI's bank account. OpenAI would then effectively hand that money right back to Amazon's cloud division (AWS) to pay for the compute it promised to buy. Amazon, thus, gets to book $10 billion in "new" cloud revenue -- juicing its growth numbers for Wall Street -- while OpenAI gets $10 billion worth of free computing power without actually burning its own cash. "It certainly looks like circular financing," Fitzgerald said. "But they've got to do something to come up with the money." Sag argues that in 2025, these types of deals have become the standard cost of doing business at the frontier. The sheer capital required to train modern models is so high that traditional revenue models can't support it yet. "There's a lot of circular economics happening right now," Sag told Fortune. "Companies want to potentially profit from the relationship beyond just a regular business engagement... By making those financial investments, it does inherently increase the risk." However, Sag notes the loop also provides a safety net. By funding OpenAI directly, Amazon is effectively buying itself a guaranteed customer for its massive infrastructure build-out, ensuring its new data centers don't sit empty. What does Amazon get, and what does OpenAI get? Sag sees the deal less as financial maneuvering and more as part of OpenAI's frantic hunt for computing power. "OpenAI is trying to secure as much compute as it can, from as many places as possible," he said. That reflects the reality of the AI economy going into 2026: Demand for AI chips still exceeds supply. Nvidia remains the gold standard for training models, but capacity is constrained. Microsoft's infrastructure is heavily committed, so if OpenAI wants to keep scaling, it can't afford to be loyal to any one ecosystem. By pulling Amazon closer, OpenAI gains access not just to capital but to additional pools of hardware -- including Amazon's Trainium and Inferentia chips. They may not match Nvidia's latest offerings on raw performance, but they're available, and might even be preferable in "commercial contexts," Sag said. For Amazon, the appeal is simpler: credibility. Despite being the world's largest cloud provider, Amazon has struggled to position itself as a first-tier player in generative AI. While Microsoft locked in OpenAI early on, and Google built Gemini around its own in-house ecosystem, Amazon has spent years pitching its silicon to a market that is skeptical. Amazon, however, has already committed at least $8 billion to Anthropic, which trains and runs its Claude models on Amazon infrastructure, including its Trainium chips. But Sag suggested Amazon's deal with Anthropic happened largely because Anthropic couldn't get the chips from Nvidia, which is known to be "pretty preferential" with the companies it chooses to supply. Landing OpenAI, even partially, changes that narrative overnight, getting Amazon squarely into a chair before the music (and capital) runs out. "ChatGPT is still seen as the Kleenex of AI," Sag said. "If OpenAI uses your hardware at any scale, that's a huge validation." If OpenAI publicly treats Amazon's chips as "good enough," it sends a signal to enterprise customers that Trainium is safe, viable, and future-proof. The bad business problem Fitzgerald cautions that Amazon may be paying for the wrong kind of exposure. The structure of the relationship suggests Amazon would primarily handle training workloads, the compute-intensive process of building new models. So far, that's been a brutal business for cloud providers: expensive to stand up, short-lived in value, and constantly made obsolete by the next refresh of chips. "Training clusters are the worst business," Fitzgerald said. "They're massively expensive, used intensely for a short period, and then Nvidia makes them irrelevant." The more stable and lucrative side of the AI economy -- inference, distribution, and ongoing customer interaction -- remains firmly in Microsoft's hands. When users interact with ChatGPT, they're still hitting Microsoft servers, Fitzgerald says. But by pulling Amazon into its orbit, OpenAI weakens its dependence on Microsoft and creates a multi-party standoff. Fitzgerald describes it as a deliberate effort to play suppliers against one another. "They can go back to Nvidia or Microsoft or Oracle and say, 'If you don't give us better terms, we'll just use Amazon,'" he said. It's a powerful strategy for a company that, paradoxically, doesn't have the cash to pay for what it's promising. OpenAI is betting its technology is essential enough -- and its collapse unthinkable enough -- that rivals will keep funding the ecosystem just to stay close, Fitzgerald said. That doesn't mean we're in a bubble, though, he added. There is real demand, real revenue, and real scarcity -- alongside very real excess. There's an easy way to tell whether this deal mattered, according to Fitzgerald. Two years from now, "look at how much of that headline number actually turned into AWS revenue." Until then, OpenAI's check might be in the mail. "Now they just have to find the other 28 billions," Fitzgerald laughed.

OpenAI and Amazon in talks for $10 billion funding deal

OpenAI is in talks with Amazon for a $10 billion investment from the e-commerce giant, according to a new report, in a deal that could also let the ChatGPT maker use Amazon's AI chips. Reuters, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, reports that the funding deal is not yet finalized and discussions remain fluid, but that it would value OpenAI at about $500 billion. OpenAI completed a restructuring in October that was designed to give it more freedom to pursue deals like this to raise capital. Against a backdrop of growing fears that valuations in the AI sector are overheating, OpenAI has forged ahead with a series of deals since then, including a $1 billion injection from Disney along with a licensing agreement allowing the use of its characters on OpenAI's video app Sora. The Amazon deal would also reportedly see OpenAI granted the ability to use Amazon's Trainium chip, which would mark a major win for the tech giant's semiconductor business. Nvidia still dominates the AI chip market, but companies such as Meta and Amazon are gaining traction with rival offerings. It would be the second major agreement between the two companies in recent months. In November, OpenAI agreed to buy $38 billion worth of capacity from Amazon Web Services, which chief executive Sam Altman said would help it expand towards the "massive, reliable compute" needed to scale the company. OpenAI has made more than $1.4 trillion of infrastructure commitments in the last few months, including with chipmakers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom. The scale and circular nature of those deals has heightened fears that the AI industry could be operating in an investment bubble. Those concerns were renewed last week when Oracle's stock fell by as much as 16% following the release of its earnings report, which showed its AI spending far outpacing returns. It shaved as much as $70 billion off the company's valuation.

OpenAI could reportedly raise $10B+ in funding from Amazon - SiliconANGLE

OpenAI Group PBC is in talks to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon.com Inc., The Information reported late Tuesday. The retail and cloud giant is no stranger to investing in large language model startups. It's the biggest backer of Anthropic PBC, OpenAI's top rival. A few weeks ago, Amazon Web Services Inc. opened a $11 billion data center campus built to host Anthropic's workloads. The site is expected to host more than one million of AWS' custom AWS Trainium2 artificial intelligence chips by the end of the year. According to CNBC, OpenAI will also adopt the cloud provider's processors in the event that the funding round the companies are discussing materializes. The report didn't specify what chips the ChatGPT developer is considering to use. AWS debuted its newest custom AI chip, AWS Trainium3, earlier this month. It includes eight cores made using a three-nanometer process. Each core includes 32 mebibytes of onboard SRAM memory that it uses to store AI models' data. Keeping data close to the transistors that process it reduces the distance the information has to travel between memory and logic circuits, which speeds up processing. Trainium3's eight cores each feature four different compute modules. There's a so-called GPSIMD engine that manages the onboard SRAM memory and performs certain other tasks. Two modules are optimized to process multiple data points simultaneously, while the fourth module runs computations on one piece of data at a time. AWS deploys Trainium3 chips in machines called Amazon EC2 Trn3 UltraServers. The chips inside each system exchange data via a custom network device, the NeuronSwitch-v1, that the cloud says provides double the bandwidth of its previous-generation hardware. AWS can link together thousands of Trn3 UltraServers to create a cluster with up to 1 million Trainium3 chips. If the funding round materializes, OpenAI might adopt not only the cloud giant's current-generation custom silicon but also future chips. When AWS debuted Trainium3 at the start of the month, it also previewed the processor's planned successor. Trainium4 is expected to provide at least six times more performance for AI workloads that process data stored in the FP4 format. This week's reports didn't specify the valuation at which Amazon might invest in OpenAI. The ChatGPT received a $500 billion valuation after its most recent secondary sale. An investment from Amazon would likely increase that sum because OpenAI's revenue has grown since its secondary sale. According to CNBC, the company added two million paid ChatGPT users between June and August alone.

OpenAI to Use Amazon's AI Chips as Part of New $10 Bn Deal: Reports | AIM

Amazon is in talks to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, a report from Reuters stated. The report, which cited sources familiar with the matter, revealed that the negotiations between the two companies are "very fluid" at the moment. The deal could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion. Another report from Bloomberg stated that OpenAI could adopt Amazon Web Services' (AWS) Trainium AI chips as a part of this deal. The Trainium chips are custom AI accelerators built to reduce the cost and energy of training and deploying large models. At the re:Invent 2025 event, the company announced the general availability of EC2 Trn3 UltraServers, powered by the 3nm Trainium3 chip. Each UltraServer can scale to 144 chips, providing up to 362 FP8 petaflops of compute. AWS says Trainium3 delivers up to 4.4 times more compute, four times better energy efficiency, and nearly four times higher memory bandwidth than Trainium2. Trainium3 follows AWS's deployment of five lakh Trainium2 chips in Project Rainier with Anthropic, described as the world's largest AI compute cluster. AWS also previewed Trainium4, expected to deliver at least six times higher FP4 performance, with further gains in FP8 performance and memory bandwidth. In November, AWS and OpenAI announced a multi-year partnership worth $38 billion to run and scale OpenAI's core AI workloads on AWS infrastructure. Under that agreement, OpenAI will begin using AWS compute immediately, with all capacity targeted for deployment before the end of 2026 and additional expansion planned through 2027 and beyond. OpenAI's use of AWS Trainium chips could reduce its reliance on NVIDIA-based systems. Trainium, alongside Google's custom AI accelerators, TPUs, is positioned as the most credible alternative to NVIDIA's GPUs, which have long dominated the AI hardware ecosystem. Google has disclosed that it trained and deployed its Gemini family of models, including Gemini 3 Pro, on TPU clusters. Google is also supplying TPUs to Anthropic, which has announced plans to deploy up to one million TPU systems to support workloads for its Claude models. Amazon, which is also one of Anthropic's major investors, has enabled several of its Claude models to be trained on Trainium hardware.

OpenAI seeks $100B funding at $830B valuation

OpenAI is seeking up to $100 billion in new funding that could value the company at $830 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The artificial intelligence startup aims to complete this round by the end of the first quarter at the earliest. The fundraising represents one of the most ambitious efforts in tech history. Final terms remain subject to change, and investor interest stays uncertain. OpenAI pursues this capital amid rapid valuation growth in the sector. The $830 billion target marks a surge from discussions just days earlier that valued the company at $750 billion. It also constitutes a 66% increase from the $500 billion valuation set in October after a secondary share sale. This sequence of valuations illustrates quick appreciation. Big Tech firms have incurred nearly $250 billion in debt during the year to support AI infrastructure development.

Amazon Eyes Major Investment in OpenAI, in What Could Be Tech's Next Big Circular Deal

The companies are in talks for a deal that would see OpenAI buy some of Amazon's custom AI chips, and that would likely push OpenAI's valuation above $500 billion, according to a report from The Information confirmed by CNBC. The talks reportedly started in October, after OpenAI completed its restructuring to a for-profit company with an agreement with Microsoft (MSFT), its largest investor, making it easier for OpenAI to seek funding from other companies. OpenAI's ChatGPT and other products don't currently generate enough revenue to cover those commitments, however, raising concerns the company may continue pulling in money from investors and lenders in the years to come before it turns a profit. Investors and analysts have grown increasingly skeptical in recent months of the growing number of circular deals within the AI industry, viewing them as unsustainable signals of a brewing AI bubble. Amazon shares were up less than 1% in recent trading, leaving them just 2% higher for the year so far and about 12% off their highs last month after a pullback in tech stocks in recent weeks.

Amazon eyes 10 billion dollar deal with OpenAI

Amazon is discussing a $10 billion investment in OpenAI along with supplying Trainium AI chips and additional cloud computing services through Amazon Web Services, according to the Financial Times. The proposed investment would elevate OpenAI's valuation above $500 billion. Discussions highlight potential issues in OpenAI's investment structures, particularly circular agreements where funds cycle back for chips and data centers. OpenAI and Amazon are also exploring collaboration on Amazon's online marketplace. This would mirror OpenAI's existing arrangements with retailers such as Etsy, Shopify, and Instacart, where OpenAI provides AI assistance for operations. Despite any new agreement, Amazon would lack access to market OpenAI's most advanced models on its developer cloud platform. Microsoft retains exclusive rights to these models through the 2030s under prior commitments. OpenAI recently modified its partnership with Microsoft to permit sourcing data center capacity from alternative providers beyond Microsoft's infrastructure. Concurrently, OpenAI secured agreements with NVIDIA, Oracle, AMD, and additional firms to expand data center capabilities and obtain or lease AI chips. Under the potential Amazon arrangement, OpenAI would incorporate Amazon's Trainium AI chips into its operations and lease further data center capacity from Amazon Web Services. This builds on OpenAI's existing pledge of $38 billion to rent servers from Amazon Web Services across the next seven years. Such commitments underscore OpenAI's substantial reliance on external compute resources to support its AI development. Investors have raised concerns over the circular dynamics in these transactions. OpenAI receives capital infusions and redirects significant portions back to the investors for infrastructure or chip purchases. For instance, SoftBank and Oracle have allocated a combined $400 billion toward constructing new data centers dedicated to OpenAI's computing requirements. OpenAI's operations have resulted in financial losses exceeding its revenue to date.

OpenAI discussed raising tens of billions at about $750 billion valuation: The Information - The Economic Times

OpenAI has held preliminary talks with some investors about raising funds at a valuation of around $750 billion, the Information reported on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. Reuters could not immediately verify the report and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If finalised, the talks would represent a roughly 50% jump from OpenAI's reported $500 billion valuation in October, following a deal in which current and former employees sold about $6.6 billion worth of shares. Separately, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is preparing for what could be among the largest IPOs ever, with a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion. The company has been laying the groundwork to go public and may file with securities regulators as early as the second half of 2026, Reuters has reported. The potential fundraise underscores the AI sector's unrelenting appetite for computing power as companies sprint to build systems that match or exceed human capabilities. Companies including Nvidia and Oracle have signed multibillion-dollar AI deals with OpenAI this year. Still, investors remain cautious, looking for any indication that AI demand might be cooling or that the hefty investments are not paying off as expected.

OpenAI Eyes Up To $100 Billion Fundraise At $750 Billion Valuation As ChatGPT Maker Lays Groundwork For Potential $1 Trillion IPO: Report - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

ChatGPT-parent OpenAI is reportedly holding early discussions with investors about a massive capital raise. OpenAI Discusses Massive Funding Round OpenAI has held preliminary talks with investors about raising as much as $100 billion at a valuation of roughly $750 billion, reported Reuters (via The Information) on Wednesday. The AI startup did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments. If completed, the funding round would mark a sharp increase from OpenAI's reported $500 billion valuation in October. At the time, current and former employees at the ChatGPT maker offloaded roughly $6.6 billion in shares to investors. Investors in that deal reportedly included SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBF) (OTC:SFTBY), Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi-backed MGX and T. Rowe Price. That valuation pushed the ChatGPT maker past Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the world's most valuable private startup. See Also: Satya Nadella Wanted To Play This Sport And Be A Banker, But Not Getting Into A Top Indian School Paved The Way For Him To Become Microsoft CEO IPO Plans Could Target $1 Trillion Separately, Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)-backed OpenAI is reportedly laying the groundwork for what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in history. Previously, Reuters reported that the company may file with U.S. securities regulators as early as the second half of 2026, with a potential valuation reaching $1 trillion. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Amazon Talks Add Strategic Dimension OpenAI is also reportedly in talks with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) about a possible investment exceeding $10 billion, alongside discussions around using Amazon's artificial intelligence chips. Benzinga Edge stock rankings show Microsoft has a positive long-term outlook, even as its short and medium-term trends remain negative, with more detailed performance data available on the platform. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Microsoft Inks Green Energy Deals To Fuel AI Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo Courtesy: Prathmesh T on Shutterstock.com AMZNAmazon.com Inc$221.870.27%OverviewMSFTMicrosoft Corp$477.800.35%SFTBFSoftBank Group Corp$101.75-5.44%SFTBYSoftBank Group Corp$51.25-%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Amazon in talks to invest $10bn in OpenAI

Amazon is in discussions to invest more than $10 billion in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, in a deal that could value the AI firm at over $500 billion, according to The Information, a tech news site that revealed the negotiations. The potential investment would help OpenAI fund the massive cost of running and expanding its artificial intelligence systems, which rely on vast data centres and powerful computer chips. OpenAI has already committed to spending $38 billion over seven years on cloud capacity from Amazon Web Services, the world's largest data centre provider. If completed, the deal could form part of a wider fundraising round involving other investors. OpenAI's long-term spending on computing power is estimated at $1.4 trillion over the next eight years, far exceeding its current revenues, making fresh funding essential. OpenAI, which recently converted its core business into a for-profit company, is also weighing a future stock market listing that could eventually value it at up to $1 trillion.

NVIDIA's AI Chips Might Have a New "Challenger" Onboard, and No, It's Not Google; OpenAI Plans to Deploy Amazon's Trainium ASIC in a Mega-Deal

ASICs are mounting up the pressure on NVIDIA's AI chips, as, according to a new report, Amazon is looking to sign a multi-billion-dollar deal with OpenAI involving Trainium chips. There's no doubt that the AI world is in dire need of capital to fuel its advancements, and apart from all tech giants looking for financing, OpenAI is one of the most proactive entities out there, securing deals with almost every major player. According to a report by The Information, Amazon is reportedly planning to invest $10 billion in OpenAI. The deal could involve OpenAI utilizing Amazon's Trainium chip, marking one of the largest external deployments of the ASIC to date. Amazon's investment is said to give OpenAI a boost in financing rounds, marking a win for both companies involved. For those unaware, Amazon's Trainium ASICs are likely one of the most competitive options available, alongside Google's TPUs, and they are now entering their fourth iteration, called Trainium4. The company recently announced plans to scale up its Trainium3 architecture into a rack-scale configuration, indicating that Amazon intends to expand its ASIC portfolio significantly. OpenAI's adoption of Amazon's Trainium would enable the giant to strengthen its position in the external market, and for OpenAI, this means gaining support from a major AI giant in its pre-IPO phase. Of course, ASICs are seen as an attractive option in the inference phase of AI, given their optimized TCO figures, but more importantly, they are being internally deployed on a much larger scale by the likes of Google and Amazon, given the need for computing power. We recently discussed how Google has significantly increased orders for its TPU chips at MediaTek and Broadcom, and it appears that tech giants view custom AI chips as a means to reduce their reliance on NVIDIA. OpenAI now has the support of Microsoft, NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, Amazon, and many others as the AI giants prepare to become a public company, and reports suggest that Sam Altman's startup is now preparing for a trillion-dollar IPO.

OpenAI in talks to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon and use its AI chips - The Economic Times

OpenAI is reportedly in early talks with Amazon to raise $10 billion and may adopt its Trainium AI chips. The deal could value OpenAI above $500 billion and boost Amazon's bid to compete with Nvidia in AI hardware. Negotiations are preliminary, but the move highlights growing investment and competition in the AI sector.OpenAI is in initial discussions to raise at least $10 billion from Amazon and use its chips, a potential win for the online retailer's effort to broaden its AI industry presence and compete with Nvidia Corp. The deal under discussion could value OpenAI north of $500 billion and see it adopt Amazon's Trainium chip, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking to remain anonymous to describe private negotiations. Talks, however, are at a preliminary stage and terms could change, the person added. A deal would mark a win for Amazon's fledgling semiconductor division. While Nvidia dominates the market for the powerful chips required to create AI platforms, developers such as Meta Platforms Inc. are starting to explore rival offerings from the likes of Alphabet Inc.'s Google. The Trainium chip is a key element of Amazon's strategy to stand out in AI, complementing its cloud division. Amazon Web Services is the largest seller of rented computing power and data storage, but it has struggled to replicate that dominance among AI developers given intense competition from the likes of Microsoft Corp., one of OpenAI's largest backers. Amazon hopes to entice companies looking for a bargain. Trainium chips are capable of powering the intensive calculations behind AI models more cheaply and efficiently than Nvidia's market-leading graphics processing units, according to the company. The negotiations between OpenAI and Amazon began around October after the ChatGPT creator completed a corporate overhaul, the Information reported earlier. Microsoft took a 27% ownership stake as part of a restructuring plan that took nearly a year to negotiate. Representatives for OpenAI and Amazon declined to comment. OpenAI was last valued at $500 billion in an employee share sale, briefly propelling the ChatGPT owner past Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the world's largest startup. That rapid rise underscores the investment frenzy surrounding the leaders of a technology with the potential to transform industries and economies. In recent months, Wall Street analysts have warned of a potential bubble forming, in part because of the circular nature of some of those investment deals -- where companies invest heavily in potential customers to keep up spending on their own products. OpenAI and Amazon last month announced a deal in which AWS will supply the startup $38 billion of cloud computing power over seven years. That announcement centreed on hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips.

Amazon Eyes $10 Billion Investment and Chip Deal in OpenAI | PYMNTS.com

That investment could value the artificial intelligence startup at upwards of $500 billion, Reuters reported late Tuesday (Dec. 16), citing a source familiar with the matter. That source said the talks between the companies are "very fluid." Reuters added that its report followed an earlier one from The Information, which said Amazon aims to use Amazon's Trainium chips, which compete with Nvidia and Google's chips, and that this funding could open the door to a larger round with other investors. OpenAI is also hoping to sell an enterprise version of ChatGPT to Amazon, but it is not clear if the deal includes provisions for integrating ChatGPT into functions like shopping features that Amazon is developing for its apps, the report said. PYMNTS has contacted both companies for comment but has not yet gotten a reply. As the Reuters report notes, the talks come at a time when OpenAI is setting the foundation for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at up to $1 trillion. The source told Reuters the approach highlights OpenAI's ability to widen its base of potential partners after shifting away from its non-profit origins and settling its deal with Microsoft. That arrangement makes OpenAI a public benefit corporation controlled by a non-profit with a stake in the company's success, making it easier for its to secure funds for computing resources. In addition, the agreement gives Microsoft exclusive intellectual-property rights to OpenAI tech until 2032. At the same time, the deal frees Microsoft to independently pursue artificial general intelligence (AGI) by itself or with third parties. (AGI is a term for a type of AI that can perform at or above the level of humans.) In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week about enterprises' embrace of AI pilots in 2025. It was a year in which these companies reported "meaningful gains" from these tools, the report said. However, fragmented deployments soon ran into rising costs, gaps in governance and operational complexity after adoption moved beyond smaller teams. "After two years of rapid experimentation, companies are consolidating disconnected tools into unified AI platforms designed to support core workflows, control inference spending and operate reliably across the organization," PYMNTS wrote. "The shift marks a turning point in enterprise AI adoption, moving the technology from isolated productivity gains toward infrastructure that must run continuously and at scale."

Sam Altman's OpenAI In Talks To Raise $10 Billion From Amazon And Use Its AI Chips: Report - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Sam Altman-led OpenAI is reportedly in talks with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) about a potential investment that could exceed $10 billion and a deal to use its artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The news was first reported by The Information on Tuesday and later by several news outlets, including CNBC and Reuters. OpenAI and Amazon did not immediately respond to Benzinga's requests for comment. OpenAI Diversifies Deals As AI Race Heats Up The move follows OpenAI's recent restructuring and its expanded capability to partner with other companies beyond its existing relationship with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). The potential partnership with Amazon also comes on the heels of its $38 billion capacity purchase agreement with the e-commerce giant's cloud unit Amazon Web Services (AWS). Meanwhile, Amazon has also shown significant interest in the AI sector, having invested over $8 billion in Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI. AWS's development of AI chips since 2015 has placed it at a strategic advantage, offering crucial hardware solutions for AI companies aiming to scale their models. Earlier this month, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon's AI chip Trainium2, is already "a multi-billion-dollar revenue run-rate business" with over a million chips in production and over 100,000 companies using it primarily. See also: Google Unveils Gemini Deep Research The Same Day As OpenAI's GPT-5.2 Launch, Intensifying AI Face-Off OpenAI's Valuation Surge OpenAI's recent $6.6 billion secondary share sale, valuing the company at $500 billion, highlights its growing market presence and financial muscle. The company's infrastructure commitments have also exceeded $1.4 trillion. The ChatGPT owner's ability to attract substantial funding from industry giants like Microsoft and potentially Amazon underscores its pivotal role in the AI ecosystem. Still, rivals like Alphabet's Google have posed stiff competition for OpenAI's models, with Google's Gemini series gaining traction and reportedly pushing OpenAI into "code red" mode to accelerate improvements. READ NEXT: Microsoft, Nvidia-Backed French AI Startup Is Coming For OpenAI And Google With Its Latest Launch Image via Shutterstock AMZNAmazon.com Inc$222.13-0.19%OverviewMSFTMicrosoft Corp$474.54-0.39%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI and Amazon in talks for $10 billion+ investment, signaling AI arms race escalates beyond Azure

OpenAI, the architect of the generative AI revolution, is reportedly in talks with Amazon for an investment that could exceed $10 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. This potential deal marks the latest escalation in the intense technological and financial arms race defining the AI industry, following similar large-scale, often "circular" funding arrangements like Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar commitment to OpenAI. The term "circular deal" refers to investments where the capital often comes with substantial provisions for the AI company to spend a significant portion of that funding on the investor's cloud infrastructure. Microsoft's deep ties to OpenAI, cemented by investments and its utilization of Azure, have become the standard model for powering hyperscale AI operations. An investment of this magnitude from Amazon would be a strategic maneuver to counter Microsoft's current dominance and potentially direct a massive, guaranteed workload toward Amazon Web Services (AWS). OpenAI, which requires immense computational power for training and deploying its large language models, needs cloud resources at a scale few companies can provide. For AWS, securing OpenAI as a core customer would be a monumental win, giving it a high-profile validation in the generative AI space and challenging Microsoft Azure's established relationship. The deal would likely include provisions for OpenAI to use AWS for a substantial portion of its future compute needs, effectively turning the investment into a guaranteed revenue stream for Amazon's cloud business. This high-stakes negotiation underscores two critical industry dynamics: The Demand for Compute: The capital required to fuel the AI industry's growth is no longer just for hiring talent; it is predominantly for securing access to vast GPU clusters and specialized cloud infrastructure. The Strategic Cloud War: Hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft view these multi-billion-dollar investments as a necessary cost to lock in the world's most advanced AI companies, ensuring their cloud platforms become the de facto operating system for the AI economy. The potential $10 billion+ transaction thus represents not just a cash injection for OpenAI, but a massive strategic alignment that will further reshape the competitive landscape between the world's leading cloud providers.

Sam Altman's OpenAI in talks to raise money at $750B: report

Sam Altman's OpenAI has reportedly held talks with private investors about raising money at an eye-popping $750 billion valuation - a move that comes amid rumblings that the artificial intelligence giant is also considering going public. The company best known for creating ChatGPT is looking to raise tens of billions of dollars in the fundraising round - potentially as much as $100 billion, The Information reported. The talks were said to be preliminary and subject to change. If the round proceeds, it would mark a 50% jump in OpenAI's valuation compared to October, when the company allowed current and former employees to sell $6.6 billion shares at a $500 billion valuation. The Post has reached out to OpenAI for comment. In October, Reuters reported that OpenAI was "laying the groundwork" for an initial public offering and was considering submitting the necessary filings with regulators by the second half of next year. The potential IPO could value OpenAI at $1 trillion, sources told the outlet. "An IPO is not our focus, so we could not possibly have set a date," an OpenAI spokesperson said at the time. "We are building a durable business and advancing our mission so everyone benefits from AGI." Elsewhere, Amazon is said to be in talks to potentially invest at least $10 billion in OpenAI and sell the company its computer chips, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. While ChatGPT has a massive base of more than 800 million weekly active users, it has yet to turn a profit. Additionally, Altman's plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to build out data centers and other infrastructure required to train more advanced AI models have spooked Wall Street and sparked discussions about whether the market is in the midst of a tech bubble. Altman recently declared a "code red" at OpenAI and told employees to focus on improving ChatGPT's performance due to concerns that Google and other rivals were gaining ground.

OpenAI-Amazon Talks Hint at $10 Billion AI Power Shift

OpenAI in Talks With Amazon for Massive AI Deal Beyond Microsoft OpenAI is in talks with Amazon about a major collaboration that could include investment and the use of Amazon's AI chips. According to CNBC and The Information, while talks are still progressing and terms have yet to be finalized, the investment amount may exceed $10 billion. The proposed acquisition is an important milestone for , which is also currently seeking to diversify its funding sources and partners for its technology beyond any one particular company.

Amazon Draws Fresh Interest as OpenAI Deal Highlights AWS's AI Infrastructure Play | Investing.com UK

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock is trading higher in premarket hours on December 17, 2025, following news that OpenAI is in discussions with the tech giant about a potential investment exceeding $10 billion. The deal would also include OpenAI using Amazon's artificial intelligence chips, marking a significant expansion of their relationship beyond the $38 billion cloud services agreement signed just last month. This development underscores Amazon's growing influence in the AI infrastructure market and comes as OpenAI seeks to diversify its partnerships following its October restructuring that gave it more freedom to raise capital beyond Microsoft. According to sources familiar with the matter, Amazon is in talks to invest approximately $10 billion in OpenAI, though the details remain fluid and subject to change. The investment could value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, highlighting the explosive growth of AI valuations. Critically, the agreement would include OpenAI's use of Amazon Web Services' Trainium chips, which compete directly with Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) dominant AI processors. Amazon has been designing its own AI chips since around 2015, with the Inferentia line launched in 2018 and the latest generation Trainium chips announced earlier this month. This potential partnership follows OpenAI's October restructuring that transformed it into a public benefit corporation, giving the company significantly more freedom to raise capital and partner across the broader AI ecosystem. Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI since 2019, no longer holds exclusive rights as OpenAI's compute provider. Amazon has already established a strong position in the AI investment landscape, having committed at least $8 billion to OpenAI rival Anthropic, though this new deal signals the e-commerce giant's desire to expand its exposure to the booming generative AI market. Amazon stock closed at $222.56 on December 16, 2025, up a modest 0.01%, but surged to $225.94 in premarket trading as of 5:32 AM EST on December 17, representing a 1.52% gain. The premarket jump reflects investor enthusiasm about Amazon's deepening ties to OpenAI and potential revenue streams from AI chip sales. Year-to-date, Amazon stock has gained just 1.44%, significantly underperforming the S&P 500's 15.62% return, while the one-year performance shows a decline of 4.45% compared to the broader market's 11.96% gain. This recent weakness makes the OpenAI news particularly welcome for shareholders seeking catalysts. Amazon maintains a market capitalization of $2.38 trillion with a trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 31.44. The company has been making massive infrastructure commitments, with over $1.4 trillion in deals signed in recent months with chipmakers including Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Analysts maintain generally positive outlooks, with BMO Capital most recently raising its price target from $300 to $304 while maintaining an Outperform rating on December 16. The consensus analyst price target stands at $295.60, suggesting significant upside potential from current levels as Amazon positions itself as a critical infrastructure provider for the AI revolution. *** Looking to start your trading day ahead of the curve?

OpenAI discussed raising tens of billions at about $750 billion valuation, the Information reports

Dec 17 (Reuters) - OpenAI has held preliminary talks with some investors about raising funds at a valuation of around $750 billion, the Information reported on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. Reuters could not immediately verify the report and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If finalized, the talks would represent a roughly 50% jump from OpenAI's reported $500 billion valuation in October, following a deal in which current and former employees sold about $6.6 billion worth of shares. Separately, Microsoft-backed OpenAI is preparing for what could be among the largest IPOs ever, with a potential valuation of up to $1 trillion. The company has been laying the groundwork to go public and may file with securities regulators as early as the second half of 2026, Reuters has reported. The potential fundraise underscores the AI sector's unrelenting appetite for computing power as companies sprint to build systems that match or exceed human capabilities. Companies including Nvidia and Oracle have signed multibillion-dollar AI deals with OpenAI this year. Still, investors reamain cautios, looking for any indication that AI demand might be cooling or that the hefty investments are not paying off as expected. (Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

OpenAI in talks with Amazon for $10 bn investment and AI chips: Report

OpenAI is reportedly in talks with Amazon about a major new partnership that could include a large investment and the use of Amazon's artificial intelligence chips. The talks are still ongoing and the final terms have not been decided yet. However, the potential investment could be worth more than $10 billion, reports CNBC and The Information. If the deal completes, this would mark an important step for OpenAI as it looks to expand its funding sources and reduce dependence on a single partner. These talks come after OpenAI completed a major restructuring in October. At the same time, the company clearly explained how its long-standing partnership with Microsoft would work going forward. The change gave OpenAI more freedom to raise money from other investors and work with different technology partners. Also read: Google launches Gemini 3 Flash AI model: What's new and how to access Microsoft has already invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI. While Microsoft remains a key partner, OpenAI is now allowed to build some products with other companies and choose alternative providers. Meanwhile, Amazon has been increasing its presence in the AI space. The company has invested at least $8 billion in Anthropic, a major competitor to OpenAI. Expanding its relationship with OpenAI could help Amazon strengthen its position in the fast-growing generative AI market. Other tech giants are making similar moves. Microsoft recently said it would invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, while Nvidia plans to invest as much as $10 billion. Also read: Meta encourages staff to use OpenAI and Google models in AI-first workplace push: Report OpenAI has also made massive infrastructure commitments in recent months, totalling more than $1.4 trillion. These include agreements with Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom. Also, OpenAI recently signed its first contract with AWS, agreeing to buy $38 billion worth of cloud capacity.