OpenAI, Amazon strike 7-year, $38 billion deal
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OpenAI has committed to spend at least $38 billion with Amazon Web Services over the next seven years, less than a week after revising its Microsoft partnership to allow more freedom in sourcing cloud computing.
Why it matters: The deal with Amazon shows OpenAI is eager to boost its computing capacity from anyone who can provide it.
Driving the news: The deal starts immediately and "will have continued growth over the next seven years," the companies said in a statement.
- OpenAI will have access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs with the option to also expand to tens of millions of other types of chips, known as CPUs — the processor type most commonly powering PCs and phones.
- The move comes just days after OpenAI and Microsoft announced a revised partnership that allows OpenAI to obtain additional computing resources without first offering the business to Microsoft.
Reality check: OpenAI has committed to spending more than $1.4 trillion with partners over the next five years.
- The company has not explained how it intends to raise that money.
- Investors are growing increasingly nervous about the giant sums AI-related companies are pledging to spend — often with each other — without the revenue or path to profitability to match.
The intrigue: Amazon has also invested $8 billion in OpenAI competitor Anthropic, signaling Amazon's push to anchor major AI startups on its infrastructure.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Amazon (not AWS) invested $8 billion (not $4 billion) in Anthropic.
