The artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT has secured a massive $110 billion investment from three major technology corporations, with the deal placing OpenAI’s value at $730 billion prior to the funding.
E-commerce giant Amazon is spearheading the investment effort with a $50 billion commitment, while graphics chip maker Nvidia and investment firm SoftBank are each contributing $30 billion, according to OpenAI’s co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman, who announced the deal Friday. Additional investors may participate as the funding process continues.
Amazon plans to begin with a $15 billion initial payment and will provide the remaining $35 billion over the coming months based on specific conditions being met.
“These partnerships expand our global reach, deepen our infrastructure, and strengthen our balance sheet so we can bring frontier AI to more people, more businesses, and more communities worldwide,” Altman stated.
The OpenAI leader revealed that ChatGPT now serves over 900 million users each week, with more than 50 million paying subscribers.
“We are entering a new phase where frontier AI moves from research into daily use at global scale,” Altman explained. “Leadership will be defined by who can scale infrastructure fast enough to meet demand, and turn that capacity into products people rely on. This funding and these partnerships let us do both, and move faster on our mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity.”
The collaboration between OpenAI and Amazon spans multiple years and will introduce cutting-edge artificial intelligence features for business customers while making Amazon Web Services the sole external cloud provider for OpenAI Frontier. The companies are expanding their existing $38 billion agreement by adding another $100 billion over eight years. They will also work together on creating specialized AI models for Amazon’s development team to enhance customer-facing services.
OpenAI announced it is also broadening its collaboration with Nvidia.
The AI company has maintained a business relationship with Microsoft dating back to 2019. OpenAI clarified in a Friday statement that the new funding and partnerships announced do not alter their existing agreement with Microsoft in any way.
“The partnership remains strong and central,” the company confirmed.
