OpenAI Signs $38 Billion Cloud Computing Deal With Amazon Web Services

OpenAI agreed on Monday to buy about $38 billion of cloud computing capacity from Amazon Web Services, its first contract with the Amazon unit, according to CNBC. Al Jazeera also reported a seven-year, $38 billion agreement. OpenAI began running workloads on Amazon’s infrastructure immediately, and it can expand its use over the next seven years, though CNBC reported that no plans beyond 2026 have been finalized.

The first phase will use existing AWS data centers, with Amazon building additional capacity later. CNBC reported that OpenAI will tap hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing chips in the United States, including two of Nvidia’s Blackwell models. Al Jazeera put the hardware at Nvidia’s GB200 and GB300 accelerators. Amazon’s own Trainium chips are not part of the current agreement, CNBC said, though other silicon could be added later.

Amazon shares rose about 4 percent on the news, Al Jazeera reported at midday, and CNBC reported they closed at a record.

“Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute,” OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said, according to CNBC. Dave Brown, an AWS vice president, said the capacity is “completely separate” from Amazon’s other capacity, CNBC reported.

The deal reflects a loosening of OpenAI’s ties to Microsoft, which was its exclusive cloud provider until earlier this year and has invested a total of $13 billion in the company. CNBC reported that Microsoft’s preferential status expired last week under new commercial terms, and that OpenAI says it will buy an additional $250 billion of Azure services. OpenAI has said it is committed to spending $1.4 trillion to develop 30 gigawatts of computing resources, according to Al Jazeera, and CNBC listed Nvidia, Broadcom, Oracle and Google among its partners.

Altman has said an initial public offering is “the most likely path” given OpenAI’s need for capital, CNBC reported.

CNBC noted that skeptics have warned of an AI bubble given commitments of this size. The reporting did not say when the full $38 billion would be spent.