OpenAI partners with Amazon in $38B cloud pact

OpenAI has signed a $38 billion, multiyear deal with Amazon for cloud computing power, marking the first partnership between the AI startup and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The seven-year agreement will allow OpenAI to train new AI models and run ChatGPT using Amazon’s data centers equipped with Nvidia chips.

Though smaller than OpenAI’s $300 billion contract with Oracle and $250 billion with Microsoft, the partnership expands AWS’s offerings to AI companies. 

AWS already has a close, strategic partnership with OpenAI rival, Perplexity.

AWS recently reported 20% year-over-year growth, its fastest since 2022, and is expanding its infrastructure, including an $11 billion data-center campus in Indiana supporting Anthropic—another AI startup backed by Amazon.

OpenAI, projected to make $13 billion in revenue this year, continues to face severe computing shortages as it scales operations to meet exploding demand for AI services.