In brief
- Amazon is reportedly in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI as part of a larger fundraising effort.
- Microsoft and Nvidia are also reportedly considering participation in the round, which could total tens of billions of dollars.
- The discussions come as OpenAI prepares for a potential fourth-quarter initial public offering.
OpenAI’s largest suppliers may soon become its biggest backers. Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia are in talks to invest in the ChatGPT developer as it prepares for a potential fourth-quarter IPO, according to reports.
Earlier reports said Amazon was in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The move would make Amazon one of OpenAI’s largest backers. Additional reporting by The Information said the fundraising effort could expand to include Microsoft and Nvidia, with the three companies collectively considering investments totaling as much as $60 billion.
"The involvement of Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia in these major funding talks is a clear vote of confidence in a market that has been skeptical of an AI bubble," David Wills, General Partner of Venture Capital firm Primal Capital, told Decrypt. "It's the biggest players in compute and cloud betting big on OpenAI as a leader in AI's future. This supports a strong valuation path and sets the stage for a solid IPO, provided they turn their edge into lasting advantages through real breakthroughs and execution."
Microsoft and Amazon declined Decrypt's request for comment. Nvidia has yet to respond.
The fundraising would be part of a larger capital raise that could reach $100 billion, as OpenAI seeks funding to cover the growing costs of training and operating its artificial-intelligence models, per the reports.
"Large-scale interest from big tech in OpenAI highlights how strategically critical AI has become–not just as a technology, but as an economic moat," Emir Ibrahim, analyst at Zerocap, told Decrypt. "From a market's perspective, this kind of capital concentration reinforces the ‘AI winners take most’ narrative, which can support mega-cap tech valuations in the short term. The downside to this is that it also increases the risk of crowding."
OpenAI has signaled plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over time on computing infrastructure, including data centers and specialized chips.
For Amazon, a deal would deepen its relationship with OpenAI beyond cloud services.
In November, OpenAI agreed to purchase $38 billion in computing services from Amazon Web Services over multiple years, even as it continued its relationship with Microsoft, which already holds a $135 billion stake in the ChatGPT developer.
Despite Amazon's deals with OpenAI, the company has also invested billions in rival AI developer Anthropic, including $4 billion in 2024.
The fundraising push is unfolding as OpenAI prepares for a public listing. OpenAI has begun laying the groundwork for an IPO later this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.
During an interview on the Alex Kantrowitz podcast in December, Altman hinted at the potential of OpenAI going public, but noted “a bunch of things at play.”
“We need lots of capital; we’re going to cross shareholder limits at some point. So am I excited to be a public company CEO? Zero percent,” he said. “Am I excited for OpenAI to be a public company? In some ways, I am, and in some ways, I think it’ll be really annoying.”
The company is reportedly holding early discussions with banks and venture capitalist firms, including Softbank, and expanding its finance team.
A public offering could help OpenAI address investor concerns about how it plans to finance the scale of its infrastructure ambitions, which have kept the company in near-constant fundraising mode despite rising revenue.
Whether the current talks result in finalized commitments remains unclear. Analysts suggest that unless its financial situation changes, OpenAI could run out of money by 2027.
"OpenAI's massive capital needs—projected losses around $14-17 billion this year alone—create real dependency on perpetual funding rounds to support their Capex," Primal Capital's Wills said.
"In a fast-crowding LLM field, where competitors like Claude and Grok are steadily gaining share while ChatGPT has been losing market share, any pause in funding could slow momentum and challenge long-term independence," Wills added. "These rounds buy crucial runway, but sustainable profitability remains the ultimate test for them in the longer term."
Editor's note: Adds comment from Zerocap analyst and Primal Capital
