Jan 29 (Reuters) – Amazon is in talks to invest dozens of billions in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and the figure could be as high as $50 billion, a source told Reuters on Thursday.
The discussion is still in the early stages and the final numbers have not been finalized, the source said.
Big Tech companies and investors such as SoftBank Group Corp are racing to forge partnerships with OpenAI – which is spending heavily on data centers – betting that closer ties with the artificial-intelligence startup would give them a competitive edge in the AI race.
OpenAI is looking to raise up to $100 billion in funding, valuing it at about $830 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday. SoftBank Group is in talks to invest as much as an additional $30 billion in the startup.
OpenAI, which signed a $10 billion computing deal with Nvidia challenger Cerebras earlier this month, is laying the groundwork for an IPO that could value it at up to $1 trillion, Reuters has also reported.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development.
Investing up to $50 billion could make Amazon the biggest contributor to the AI company’s ongoing fundraising round.
Amazon is also an investor in Anthropic, having invested about $8 billion in the company, recently valued at $183 billion.
Anthropic, which has emerged as a major rival to OpenAI due to the strong adoption of its services by enterprise customers, has forecast that it will more than double and potentially nearly triple its annualized revenue run rate in 2026 to around $26 billion.
Amazon declined to comment, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters when contacted.
Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft are also in talks to invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI, the Information reported on Wednesday.
Nvidia, an existing investor whose chips power OpenAI’s AI models, is in talks to invest up to $30 billion, while Microsoft, a longstanding backer, is in talks to invest less than $10 billion.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Krystal Hu in San Francisco; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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