OpenAI has closedanother round of funding, totalling $110 billion being newly committed to the maker of ChatGPT, which it says has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers. Amazon is investing $50 billionand striking a dealthat includes plans for custom models and more. Nvidia and SoftBank are each contributing $30 billion, as well, even as theWall Street Journalnotes that Nvidia’s previous$100 billion in…
The investment from Amazon is more than just an injection of cash. The companies are entering a partnership that will potentially allow Amazon to play catch-up in the AI market. The two companies will be collaborating on custom models intended to power “customer-facing applications” like Alexa.
It will also make AWS a third-party provider of OpenAI Frontier, its enterprise-facing platform for building, deploying, and managing AI agents that will run on Amazon’s Trainium chips. Amazon is investing just $15 billion up front, with the additional $35 billion being delivered as certain milestones are met.Rumors have indicatedthat, like its deal with Microsoft, those milestones include mentions of reaching AGI.
OpenAI went out of its way to reiterate its commitment to itspartnership with Microsoft. But a reworking of thedealbetween the two companies is what has allowed OpenAI to pursue the partnership with Amazon, as Microsoft has also reached farther afield and begunworkingwithAnthropic.
In the midst of all this, the company is rumored to be launching asmart speakerinearly 2027, striking content deals withDisney, and fending off growing competition from the likes of Anthropic andGoogle. It’s also potentially working towards an IPO, as CEO Sam Altman toldCNBCthat, “We are open to going public at the right time.”