OpenAI draws $110bn from Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank in record fundraise

OpenAI has secured an unprecedented $110 billion investment commitment from Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, propelling the artificial intelligence company into what could be the largest private funding round in history and sharply intensifying competition in the AI sector. The financial injection comes as the developer of the ChatGPT generative AI platform prepares for a potential public offering later this year and looks to expand its global infrastructure at scale.

Amazon is set to lead the funding trio with a $50 billion commitment, including an initial $15 billion infusion followed by an additional $35 billion contingent on the company meeting stipulated milestones. Nvidia and SoftBank have each pledged $30 billion. The round leaves OpenAI with a valuation estimated between about $730 billion and $840 billion, depending on the specific reporting outlet, reflecting a dramatic leap from the company’s previous funding rounds.

OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman described the capital commitments as a landmark moment for the firm’s growth trajectory. He stressed that the backing from these global technology leaders will enhance the company’s ability to scale AI infrastructure, sharpen research efforts and accelerate product development aimed at broader adoption. ChatGPT, one of OpenAI’s flagship products, boasts hundreds of millions of weekly users and a rapidly expanding subscriber base, positioning it at the centre of the AI transformation across industries.

The capital raise also intersects with strategic partnerships. Under the terms of its investment, Amazon’s cloud computing arm, AWS, will act as the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI’s Frontier enterprise platform. This arrangement underscores a deepening commercial relationship, with OpenAI set to consume significant computing capacity powered by Amazon’s custom Trainium chips — a move the companies say will support high-performance AI workloads and new product integrations.

Despite these expanded ties, OpenAI reaffirmed that its longstanding collaboration with Microsoft remains intact. Microsoft continues as the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI’s API services and holds an exclusive licence to the company’s models for commercial use, a framework that predates the latest funding round and remains central to OpenAI’s business strategy.

Investor enthusiasm for OpenAI’s offering follows a period of intense capital flow into AI firms worldwide, as technology giants and venture investors vie to capture leadership in machine learning and autonomous systems. SoftBank’s significant commitment reflects its broader pivot toward AI infrastructure, while Nvidia’s investment aligns with its role as a predominant supplier of high-end processors for model training and inference workloads.

The infusion arrives against a backdrop of escalating competition from peers such as Anthropic and Google’s AI initiatives, both of which have recently amassed substantial funding and market share. Anthropic, for example, has closed funding rounds that propelled its valuation into the hundreds of billions, while other players like Elon Musk’s xAI entity have pursued mergers and capital raises to bolster their positions. These rival efforts underscore a broader industry drive to harness large-scale generative AI for commercial and enterprise deployment.

Analysts say the size and structure of OpenAI’s latest funding also signal broader strategic shifts in technology investment. The roughly $50 billion Amazon commitment being conditioned on milestones — including potential triggers such as an initial public offering or advances toward artificial general intelligence — reflects investor appetite for tying capital to performance outcomes in emerging technologies. The conditional nature of these funds may provide safeguards for stakeholders amid uncertainties over monetisation pathways for large language models and related AI systems.

Alongside the funding, OpenAI faces scrutiny over its cost model as it ramps up data centre footprint and computational capacity. The operations underpinning generative AI places significant demands on power and infrastructure, raising questions about sustainability, return on investment and the long-term viability of current cost structures. OpenAI has acknowledged these challenges as it balances rapid growth with efforts to stabilise its revenue streams, including expanding subscription offerings and monetised enterprise services.

For Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, the investment represents not only a financial stake but a strategic bet on the direction of AI innovation. Each entity brings distinct capabilities — from cloud infrastructure and chip design to global capital reserves — that they hope will translate into competitive advantages as AI technologies become increasingly embedded across sectors from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and national security.