OpenAI signs $38 billion cloud deal with Amazon to power its next-gen AI models
This marks its first major move beyond Microsoft as it expands its AI cloud footprint.
OpenAI’s rise in the tech industry has been anything but ordinary. Beyond creating ChatGPT, the company has repeatedly made headlines with record-breaking numbers. It recently closed a $40 billion funding deal, the largest ever for a private firm, and reached a $500 billion valuation through a secondary share sale, becoming the world’s most valuable private company.
Now, keeping that momentum, OpenAI has signed a $38 billion cloud partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), marking its first major deal with the e-commerce giant and another bold step in scaling its AI infrastructure.
The seven-year agreement gives OpenAI access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs in AWS data centers, dramatically boosting its compute capacity for training and running next-generation models. With demand for reliable AI compute surging, this deal could help OpenAI stay ahead of the curve.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
For Amazon, it could also be a strategic win. The partnership strengthens AWS’s position in the race for AI cloud dominance, a space where Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have recently gained ground, reporting 40% and 34% year-over-year revenue growth, compared to AWS’s 20%. News of the deal pushed Amazon’s stock up nearly 5% to a record high, capping a 14% two-day rally, its best run since late 2022.
Beyond its size, the partnership also underscores just how capital-intensive AI has become. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has hinted at ambitions to build up to 30 gigawatts of compute capacity, roughly enough to power 25 million U.S. homes, making cloud alliances like this one essential to that vision. For AWS, hosting OpenAI’s workloads is a major validation of its high-performance AI capabilities.
The timing of the deal is no coincidence, too. It follows a restructuring of OpenAI’s exclusive arrangement with Microsoft, which once had the first right to supply compute services. With that limitation now gone, OpenAI has been branching out, striking additional agreements with Oracle and Google, as it seeks to balance growth, cost, and independence.
All signs point to an upward trajectory. As billions flow into AI infrastructure and companies race to build ever more powerful models, OpenAI is positioning itself not just as a participant, but as one of the forces defining the future of the industry.
Emmanuel Umahi
