Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
New Delhi: OpenAI may be preparing for another major shift in how it raises money and runs its massive AI systems. The company behind ChatGPT is in early talks with Amazon about a large investment and the possible use of Amazon-made AI chips. The discussions are still private and fluid, but the numbers involved are already drawing attention across the tech world.
According to people familiar with the matter, OpenAI is exploring a deal that could bring in at least $10 billion from Amazon and push its valuation beyond $500 billion. If this moves ahead, it would deepen OpenAI’s ties beyond Microsoft and place Amazon more firmly in the fast-moving AI infrastructure race.
A person with knowledge of the discussions said the deal under discussion could value OpenAI north of $500 billion and see the company adopt Amazon’s Trainium chip. The person asked to remain anonymous since the negotiations are private and still at an early stage. The source also said terms could change.
Reuters separately reported that Amazon may invest about $10 billion in OpenAI. The talks were described as “very fluid” by a source familiar with the matter. Reuters added that the potential deal comes at a time when OpenAI is laying the groundwork for a future initial public offering that could value the company at up to $1 trillion.
The Information first reported the talks between OpenAI and Amazon. It said negotiations began around October, shortly after OpenAI completed a long corporate overhaul.
One key part of the discussions is Amazon’s Trainium chip. These chips are designed to handle the heavy computing work needed to train and run large AI models. Amazon says Trainium can do this more cheaply and efficiently than Nvidia’s graphics processing units.
For Amazon, a deal like this would be a clear win. Nvidia still dominates the market for AI chips, but cloud giants are trying to reduce reliance on one supplier. Developers such as Meta are already exploring alternatives from Google and others.
Trainium is also central to Amazon Web Services’ broader AI plans. AWS remains the world’s largest seller of rented computing power and data storage. Still, it has faced stiff competition from Microsoft in the AI space, especially since Microsoft is one of OpenAI’s biggest backers.
The talks highlight how OpenAI has changed over the past year. The company moved away from its original non profit setup and became a public benefit corporation. It is controlled by a non profit that still holds a stake in its financial success.
As part of this restructuring, Microsoft took a 27 percent ownership stake in OpenAI. Microsoft also secured exclusive rights to sell OpenAI models to its cloud customers. Reuters noted that this change removed major limits on OpenAI’s ability to raise capital and secure computing resources.
A source told Reuters that this shift now allows OpenAI to partner more widely, including with firms like Amazon.
The Information reported that Amazon’s financing could open the door to a broader fundraising round involving more investors. It also said OpenAI is looking to sell an enterprise version of ChatGPT to Amazon.
It remains unclear whether any deal would include deeper integration of ChatGPT features into Amazon’s own products, such as AI-powered shopping tools the company is developing.
