OpenAI Strikes $38 Bln Cloud Deal With Amazon Web Services, Showing A Shift Beyond Microsoft

(RTTNews) - OpenAI has signed a landmark $38 billion agreement with Amazon Web Services to purchase cloud capacity, marking its first major deal with the cloud leader and a clear move away from exclusive reliance on Microsoft.

Under the multiyear partnership, OpenAI will immediately begin running workloads on AWS infrastructure, accessing hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs in the U.S., with expansion plans in place. Amazon's stock rose 5 percent following the announcement.

Through the agreement, AWS will construct more OpenAI infrastructure, enabling real-time inference for programs like ChatGPT as well as AI training. The collaboration will power this aspect next era of cutting-edge AI development, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

This is OpenAI's biggest deal outside of Microsoft, which has contributed $13 billion to the AI startup since 2019. OpenAI is free to work with other providers now that Microsoft's exclusive cloud rights have expired, and it has already signed cloud agreements with Google and Oracle.

The deal strengthens AWS's reputation in the AI space and coincides with Amazon increasing its investments in Anthropic, another AI startup. The action demonstrates OpenAI's attempts to broaden its cloud alliances in anticipation of a possible IPO.