OpenAI inks $38B deal with Amazon for AI compute
What's the story
OpenAI has signed a massive seven-year, $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to access the cloud computing resources needed for its advanced AI tools. The agreement will give OpenAI access to "hundreds of thousands" of NVIDIA GPUs in AWS's global data centers. The full capacity is expected to be online by the end of 2026, allowing OpenAI to scale rapidly while leveraging AWS's cloud network.
Strategic shift
A significant shift for OpenAI's cloud strategy
This deal marks a major shift for OpenAI, which has relied exclusively on Microsoft's Azure cloud for years. The move comes just a week after OpenAI restructured its ownership to gain more freedom in financing and operations. This restructuring also removed Microsoft's right of first refusal to supply cloud services, further paving the way for this new partnership with AWS.
AI scaling
Expanding AI capabilities with Amazon's infrastructure
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stressed the need for "massive, reliable compute" to scale frontier AI. He said, "Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone." The deal also allows OpenAI to use Amazon's infrastructure, including NVIDIA processors, to train and run its models, process ChatGPT queries, and expand its "agentic AI" systems.
Infrastructure readiness
AWS CEO on the deal's significance
AWS CEO Matt Garman said the deal is proof that Amazon's infrastructure can handle "the vast AI workloads" of frontier model builders like OpenAI. The partnership will also give OpenAI access to millions of CPUs for specialized workloads, enabling it to meet the growing user demand as AI adoption widens. All planned capacity under this agreement will be online by the end of 2026, with expansion continuing through 2027 and beyond.
Contract surge
OpenAI's massive cloud commitments and computing shortages
The deal with AWS comes as part of a larger trend, with OpenAI having committed nearly $600 billion in new cloud contracts across Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle. This is a staggering amount for a company that generates some $13 billion in annual revenue. The contracts are intended to address what Altman has called "severe computing shortages" that have limited model training and product launches.