Hajra Naz
OpenAI, already one of the most valuable private companies in the world, is reportedly looking to raise another massive round of funding. The AI startup is said to be seeking up to $100 billion, a move that could push its valuation to around $830 billion, up sharply from its current $500 billion valuation.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon is in talks to play a major role in that round, potentially committing at least $50 billion. While details of the deal remain limited, the report says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is personally leading negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Both companies declined to comment when contacted by TechCrunch.
Amazon isn’t the only potential backer in the mix. OpenAI has reportedly been holding discussions with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, and The New York Times has previously reported talks involving Nvidia, Microsoft, and SoftBank. The funding round is expected to close by the end of the first quarter, assuming negotiations move forward as planned.
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An Amazon–OpenAI partnership would be notable given Amazon’s deep and growing relationship with Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s biggest rivals. Amazon has invested at least $8 billion in Anthropic and relies on AWS as Anthropic’s primary cloud and model-training provider. The company recently opened an $11 billion data center campus in Indiana, built specifically to run Anthropic’s AI models.
If the deal goes through, Amazon would find itself financially backing two of the most influential and competing AI labs, underscoring how aggressively the company is positioning itself in the rapidly escalating AI arms race.
