Amazon in Advanced Negotiations for $50 Billion Investment in OpenAI

Amazon in Advanced Negotiations for $50 Billion Investment in OpenAI

January 29, 2026

In a move that could dramatically reshape the competitive landscape of the artificial intelligence industry, Amazon.com Inc. is reportedly in advanced talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. This potential deal underscores the immense financial stakes and strategic maneuvering among tech giants to secure dominance in the foundational AI models that are powering the next generation of digital services and cloud computing demand.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is personally involved in negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The discussions are part of a broader funding round in which OpenAI aims to raise a staggering $100 billion, a figure that would value the AI research company at approximately $830 billion. To secure the remaining $50 billion, OpenAI is also reportedly in parallel talks with other potential investors, including chipmaker Nvidia, Japan's SoftBank Group, and several sovereign wealth funds.

This negotiation represents a significant escalation from discussions just last December, when the two companies were considering a $10 billion investment that would have involved Amazon's custom Trainium AI chips. The relationship between the firms was already solidified in November 2025 through a massive, seven-year cloud agreement worth $38 billion, granting OpenAI access to Nvidia's advanced GB200 and GB300 processors on Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure. That deal is itself part of a wider series of cloud and data center commitments by OpenAI, estimated to be worth around $1.4 trillion in total.

The timing of the investment talks is notable, coming the same week Amazon confirmed plans to lay off 16,000 workers across its divisions, including AWS. Amazon's AI investment strategy also appears multifaceted, as the company has already committed billions of dollars to OpenAI's rival, Anthropic, and is developing specialized "Rainier" supercomputers for that company, which utilize clusters of nearly 500,000 Trainium2 chips.

If finalized, a $50 billion investment from Amazon would represent one of the largest single private investments in technology history. It would create a powerful, albeit complex, alliance between the world's leading cloud infrastructure provider and the foremost developer of generative AI models. Such a partnership could accelerate AI innovation and deployment but also raises questions about market concentration and the future dynamics between cloud hyperscalers and their most demanding AI customers. The outcome of these talks will be closely watched as a bellwether for the future balance of power in the high-stakes AI ecosystem.

Source: datacenterdynamics