Amazon is in early discussions to invest as much as $10 billion in OpenAI, highlighting how investors — including the world’s largest technology companies — continue to commit extraordinary sums to the sector, even as profitability remains elusive for most AI ventures.
According to CNBC, the talks could result in OpenAI relying more heavily on Amazon’s AI chips, deepening ties between the ChatGPT maker and the e-commerce and cloud computing giant. If completed, the deal would value OpenAI at more than $500 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The Information first reported that Amazon was exploring the investment.
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The sheer scale of the potential valuation illustrates how strongly investors are betting on AI’s long-term promise, even as near-term financial returns remain uncertain. Generative AI products have yet to demonstrate a clear, durable path to profitability, largely because of the enormous costs associated with training and running large models. Data centers, specialized chips, energy consumption, and talent acquisition continue to consume vast amounts of capital, often far outpacing revenues.
Still, that has not slowed the flow of money.
Amazon’s interest in OpenAI comes as the company looks to broaden its exposure in the AI race. It has already invested about $8 billion in Anthropic, positioning itself as a major backer of OpenAI’s rival while using those ties to promote its cloud services and proprietary hardware. Earlier this month, Amazon unveiled the latest version of its Trainium AI chips and disclosed plans for the next generation, part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on Nvidia and strengthen Amazon Web Services as an end-to-end AI platform.
A deal with OpenAI would be strategically significant for Amazon. Securing OpenAI as a customer for its AI chips would validate years of internal chip development and potentially drive massive workloads onto AWS. It would also place Amazon more squarely at the center of the AI ecosystem, alongside Microsoft and Google, both of which have tightly integrated AI models into their cloud and consumer offerings.
However, the appeal of new capital is straightforward for OpenAI. The company recently completed its transition to a for-profit structure, a move that allows it to raise money more freely and reduce its dependence on Microsoft, which owns roughly 27% of the firm. That shift has come as OpenAI’s spending commitments have surged. Training increasingly capable models requires long-term contracts for compute and infrastructure that run into the tens of billions of dollars.
The broader AI landscape is now defined by what many investors describe as circular deals. Major cloud providers and chipmakers invest in AI startups, which then commit to using those same companies’ data centers and hardware.
In March, OpenAI invested $350 million in CoreWeave, which used the funds to buy Nvidia chips that ultimately power OpenAI’s own workloads. In October, OpenAI took a 10% stake in AMD and agreed to use its AI GPUs, while also signing a chip usage deal with Broadcom. In November, OpenAI struck a $38 billion cloud computing agreement with Amazon, even before any equity investment had been finalized.
These arrangements are seen as reflections of a shared calculation across the industry: securing access to compute capacity now is more important than worrying about margins later. For many backers, the risk of missing out on the next foundational AI platform outweighs concerns about current losses.
That mindset helps explain why capital continues to pour into AI despite growing unease in parts of the market. Some analysts have warned that spending on AI infrastructure is racing ahead of demand, raising fears of overcapacity. Others point to the lack of proven business models beyond enterprise subscriptions and experimental consumer products.
Yet valuations keep climbing, and funding rounds keep getting larger.
The logic is defensive as much as opportunistic for Big Tech. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are under pressure to ensure that AI does not erode their core businesses. Investing heavily — even at uncertain returns — is seen as a way to stay relevant, shape standards, and lock in strategic partners.
The talks between Amazon and OpenAI remain preliminary and may not result in a deal. But they capture the moment the AI industry is in: a phase defined less by profits and more by scale, positioning, and the belief that whoever controls the infrastructure and relationships today will dominate the economics tomorrow, whenever they finally arrive.