OpenAI raises $110B from Amazon, Nvidia, SoftBank
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- OpenAI closed $110 billion in new funding from Amazon ($50B), Nvidia ($30B), and SoftBank ($30B), with the company now valued at $730 billion after previously closing a record $40 billion round in 2025.
- Amazon's $50 billion is structured as $15 billion upfront plus $35 billion tied to milestones — rumored to include reaching AGI — and bundles co-development of custom models for applications like Alexa with AWS hosting of OpenAI's enterprise Frontier platform on Trainium chips.
- OpenAI reported it now has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers, and reiterated that its partnership with Microsoft remains "strong and central," though the two reworked their deal to enable the Amazon arrangement.
- Microsoft has separately begun working with Anthropic, even as OpenAI pursues the new Amazon alliance, signaling a shift in the AI alliance map among the largest cloud and lab players.
- Nvidia's previously announced $100 billion investment plan is "on ice" per the Wall Street Journal, even as the chipmaker commits $30 billion in this new round.
- OpenAI is rumored to be launching a smart speaker in early 2027, striking content deals with Disney, and CEO Sam Altman told CNBC the company is "open to going public at the right time," hinting at a future IPO.
Why it matters: Amazon's $50B — structured around AGI-linked milestones and Trainium-based compute — gives AWS a real foothold in frontier AI, closing a strategic gap with Microsoft and Google. OpenAI's $730B valuation, 900M weekly users, and Altman's IPO openness suggest preparations for a public-market debut, while Nvidia's frozen $100B plan shows the headline number masks significant behind-the-scenes reshuffling.
