Amazon could invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI in coming weeks, source says

Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, CNBC confirmed on Thursday, in a significant vote of confidence from the e-commerce giant after it invested in one of the startup’s biggest rivals.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy have been engaging in the discussions directly, according to a source familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are confidential.

Amazon has pumped billions of dollars into OpenAI competitor Anthropic since 2023.

The details of Amazon’s talks with OpenAI are still fluid and the final total is subject to change, but the term sheet could be signed in the coming weeks, the person said.

A representative for Amazon declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the $50 billion figure.

OpenAI is also engaging in fundraising discussions with a number of other investors, and the total round could close around $100 billion, the person said. Altman was in the United Arab Emirates to participate in the investment talks with sovereign wealth funds last week, as CNBC previously reported.

The startup was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, and it exploded into the mainstream in 2022 after launching its generative chatbot ChatGPT. OpenAI has grown into one of the largest commercial entities on the planet, and its valuation swelled to $500 billion in October after it finalized a secondary share sale.

Amazon and OpenAI have been in talks about a potential investment since last year, and the final deal could include an agreement to use Amazon’s AI chips, as CNBC previously reported.

Anthropic was founded by a group of former OpenAI executives and researchers, including its CEO Dario Amodei, in 2021. The company is best known for its family of AI models called Claude, and it closed a multi-billion dollar funding round at a $350 billion valuation earlier this month.

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