Amazon.com is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup.
The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30 billion more in OpenAI as part of the round, adding to the Japanese conglomerate’s already large stake in the startup.
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, is leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to some of the people. The exact shape of a deal, should one be reached, could still change, the people said.
Investing up to $50 billion could make Amazon the biggest contributor to the AI company’s ongoing fundraising round. Amazon has also put money into OpenAI competitor Anthropic. The company has developed an $11 billion data center campus for the large language model developer in Indiana
Amazon has been investing heavily in AI infrastructure while also cutting costs internally. On Wednesday, Amazon announced it would cut around 16,000 corporate employees. In October it cut around 14,000 jobs.
Meanwhile,the company is investing more in AI, both for customers as well as to use internally.
OpenAI, which is weighing a potential initial public offering, is also aiming to raise capital from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and other venture capital funds. The company’s existing investors include Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures and MGX, the United Arab Emirates fund.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Write to Jessica Toonkel at jessica.toonkel@wsj.com, Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com and Kate Clark at kate.clark@wsj.com