Japan’s Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), which represents the nation’s most prominent intellectual property holders, including Studio Ghibli, Bandai Namco, and Toei Animation, has demanded that OpenAI stop using its members’ copyrighted material to train its video generation model, Sora 2.

The letter, first reported by Automaton, accuses OpenAI of using Japanese creative works without authorization, calling the act of replication during the machine learning process a potential “copyright infringement.” CODA argued that the company’s generative AI system, which has produced numerous clips and visuals bearing a strong resemblance to Japanese animation and gaming characters, has crossed legal lines.

“CODA considers that the act of replication during the machine learning process may constitute copyright infringement,” the organization said.

The complaint follows the September 30 launch of Sora 2, which quickly became a global sensation for its lifelike AI-generated videos — many of which adopted the visual language and style of beloved Japanese animation studios. In response, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry reportedly asked OpenAI to stop replicating Japanese artwork, underlining the rising alarm among Japanese creators about generative AI’s impact on cultural property.

This controversy marks one of several global confrontations between AI developers and copyright owners. Over the past year, a wave of “cease and desist” letters has been issued to major AI companies, including OpenAI, Stability AI, and Midjourney, over their alleged use of copyrighted material without permission. Many of these warnings have escalated into full-scale lawsuits.

In the United States, The New York Times filed a landmark lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023, accusing them of using millions of its articles to train GPT models without authorization. The Times alleged that the AI systems could reproduce entire paragraphs from its reporting, potentially replacing its journalism in search results and chat interfaces. Similarly, several prominent authors — including George R.R. Martin, John Grisham, and Jodi Picoult — sued OpenAI, claiming the company’s large language models were trained on pirated copies of their books. Getty Images also sued Stability AI in both the U.S. and the U.K., accusing it of using more than 12 million copyrighted photos to train its image generator, Stable Diffusion.

The rising volume of legal challenges has forced AI companies to rethink their approach to data sourcing. In an effort to secure lawful access to training data, OpenAI has begun signing content partnerships with major platforms. Earlier this year, it struck deals with Reddit, Stack Overflow, the Associated Press, and Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider and Politico, to license their data for model training. These partnerships mark a shift in strategy as AI firms face increasing scrutiny from regulators and creators worldwide.

However, CODA insists that OpenAI’s reliance on “opt-out” systems — where content owners must explicitly request exclusion from training — violates Japan’s copyright regime.

“Under Japan’s copyright system, prior permission is generally required for the use of copyrighted works, and there is no system allowing one to avoid liability for infringement through subsequent objections,” the association said in its statement.

The group urged OpenAI to “respond sincerely” to its members’ concerns and immediately cease using Japanese intellectual property without prior authorization. The association also hinted that it could pursue legal or diplomatic action if the company fails to comply.

The growing number of copyright disputes highlights a widening fault line between AI innovation and intellectual property protection. As AI models become more advanced and capable of mimicking human artistry, creative industries across the world — from Hollywood to Tokyo — are mobilizing to safeguard their work from unauthorized digital reproduction.

It is believed that Japan’s pushback could become a defining test of how nations with robust copyright protections adapt to the AI age. With AI-generated content blurring the lines between inspiration and imitation, OpenAI and its rivals face an increasingly urgent challenge: balancing technological progress with the rights of the creators who supply the culture that fuels it.

OpenAI has struck a landmark seven-year, $38 billion agreement with Amazon.com Inc. to purchase cloud services, marking its first major infrastructure move since last week’s restructuring that granted the ChatGPT maker greater operational and financial independence.

The deal cements Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a central player in OpenAI’s bid to expand computing power for the next generation of artificial intelligence models.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will gain access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs through AWS to train and deploy its frontier AI systems — a move that underscores the industry’s growing hunger for computing resources. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the deal represents a significant step toward achieving the company’s ambitious target of developing 30 gigawatts of computing power, roughly enough to power 25 million U.S. homes.

“This is a hugely significant deal and clearly a strong endorsement of AWS compute capabilities to deliver the scale needed to support OpenAI,” said Paolo Pescatore, analyst at PP Foresight.

Altman echoed that sentiment, emphasizing reliability and scale as critical to AI advancement.

“Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute,” he said. “Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone.”

AWS will begin provisioning capacity immediately, with all systems expected to go live by the end of 2026, and more expansions planned through 2027. Amazon will deploy Nvidia’s newest GB200 and GB300 AI accelerators across vast data centers to power OpenAI’s training workloads and the conversational capabilities behind ChatGPT.

The announcement comes as Amazon’s cloud unit regains investor confidence following strong growth in the September quarter. AWS had faced concerns that it was losing ground to Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud in the AI infrastructure race, but Monday’s deal pushed Amazon shares to a record high, adding nearly $140 billion to its market capitalization. The stock surged 5% during trading, following a 10% rally the previous Friday.

The partnership also highlights OpenAI’s diversification strategy. Despite its long-standing alliance with Microsoft — which began in 2019 and saw the software giant take a multibillion-dollar stake — OpenAI has increasingly sought to reduce dependence on a single provider. In addition to AWS, the company has inked a $300 billion cloud supply deal with Oracle and is working with Google Cloud to expand its compute network.

The new arrangement effectively sidelines Microsoft’s exclusive cloud rights, which were removed during last week’s restructuring. OpenAI’s revised governance framework allows the company to seek external investors and explore an initial public offering, which puts the value of the AI leader at up to $1 trillion, according to a Reuters report.

However, the eye-popping spending commitments, estimated at over $1 trillion in total compute investments, have fueled concerns on Wall Street that the AI sector is edging toward a financial bubble. Analysts warn that the enormous infrastructure costs could weigh heavily on OpenAI’s profitability, even as its annualized revenue run rate is projected to reach $20 billion by year-end.

OpenAI’s partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and Google now make it one of the most cloud-diversified AI firms in the world. Yet, questions remain about how the company will finance such extraordinary expansion. The firm is still loss-making, and its capital demands — including Altman’s ambition to add 1 gigawatt of compute capacity per week — are unprecedented in tech history.

The OpenAI deal is seen as a symbolic and financial victory for Amazon, solidifying AWS’s relevance in a hyper-competitive AI arms race. It positions the e-commerce giant’s cloud business as a foundational layer for the most advanced AI systems in development, reaffirming that even as AI models grow more sophisticated, cloud infrastructure remains the backbone of the intelligence revolution.

Analysis: OpenAI’s Trillion-Dollar Data Center Ambition

OpenAI is embarking on an unprecedented technological build-out. Through extensive partnerships and deals with tech giants like Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, Broadcom, Amazon, and CoreWeave, the company is committing to a massive expansion of its data center and computing capacity. The estimated total investment for this infrastructure is projected to exceed $1 trillion. This staggering figure underscores the modern imperative for huge, foundational investments to drive future economic and technological dominance.

Commentary: The Folly of Austerity and the Power of Productive Spending

The idea that governments should prioritize austerity is a flawed and outdated governing philosophy. I am a firm believer in the Keynesian principle that governments must actively spend money to enable growth. When done correctly, with a focus on high-impact, productive investments, this approach yields tremendous societal benefits.

Historically, major world powers have embraced this model. The United States, for instance, chose a strategy of continuous borrowing and spending to build the world’s largest consumer market. This conscious decision to not prioritize a balanced budget but instead focus on being the central hub for global commerce has been fundamental to its enduring global influence. The strategy was simple: make the country the place where all nations must do business, and you control the world.

The Universal Recipe for Economic Growth

Across various political systems—from autocracy to democracy—the core ingredients for economic success remain remarkably consistent:

1. Embrace Merit: Ensure that systems reward competence and talent.
2. Be Pragmatic: Adopt processes that are practical and effective, not just ideological.
3. Ensure Decent Leadership: Appoint/elect leaders who can execute a vision effectively.

When these three tenets are followed, and governments implement productive spending and subsidies (as seen in China, Russia, and the US), economic growth inevitably follows. The recent economic struggles in nations attempting severe austerity (like the initial model in Argentina) show the limitations of cutting expenditures to the bone; even if statistical improvements are claimed, human poverty can worsen, often requiring massive external aid to stabilize.

A Vision for Nigeria: Spending for Transformational Infrastructure

For a nation like Nigeria, this principle should be the blueprint for progress. Imagine the transformative impact of a targeted, large-scale investment plan:

• Infrastructure Spine: Building a deep seaport in Akwa Ibom and connecting it via a dedicated rail line to major commercial hubs like Aba, Onitsha, Maiduguri, etc, in the Nigerian eastern shore.
• Energy Security: Committing to connecting and providing every home and business in Nigeria with natural gas and electricity within a tight five-year deadline that works.

Even if this required borrowing from the IMF or other sources, the resulting economic activity, job creation, and productivity gains would quickly propel the nation forward. We need to move beyond small-scale budgets and embrace a transformative vision.

Good People, I would like to see a $100 billion Nigerian national budget engineered for PRODUCTIVE spending, from the paltry sub-$40b