Seven-year agreement gives OpenAI access to vast Nvidia-powered computing resources via AWS, signaling a major shift from Microsoft
OpenAI has signed a record-breaking US$38 billion, seven-year deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to secure the massive computing power it needs to train and run its next generation of artificial intelligence models. The move underscores OpenAI’s growing independence from Microsoft and marks Amazon’s bold re-entry into the AI race.
OpenAI’s Biggest Cloud Move Yet
The landmark deal, announced on Monday, will allow OpenAI to tap into hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs hosted in AWS data centers to train its frontier AI models, including ChatGPT’s successors. OpenAI will start using AWS immediately, with capacity expansions planned through 2026, and further scaling in 2027 and beyond.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman called the partnership “hugely significant,” adding that “scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute.” The collaboration with AWS, he said, strengthens the infrastructure powering “the next era of advanced AI for everyone.”
Amazon’s Record Surge and Strategic Win
The announcement sent Amazon shares soaring 4%, closing at a record high, and pushing its market capitalization up by nearly US$140 billion. Analysts hailed the deal as a strong vote of confidence in Amazon Web Services, which investors had feared was lagging behind Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud in the AI race.
“This is a major endorsement of AWS’s compute capabilities,” said analyst Paolo Pescatore, noting that it reaffirms Amazon’s relevance in high-performance AI workloads.
AWS CEO Matt Garman emphasized that the agreement demonstrates “the breadth and immediate availability of optimized compute that only AWS can provide to support OpenAI’s vast workloads.”
End of Microsoft Exclusivity
The deal also marks the end of OpenAI’s exclusive cloud partnership with Microsoft, which had been in place since 2019. Microsoft invested US$13 billion in OpenAI and held the first right of refusal on its compute contracts—rights that expired following OpenAI’s corporate restructuring last week.
Under new terms, OpenAI remains a major Azure client, recently agreeing to buy US$250 billion in Microsoft cloud capacity. But by partnering with Amazon—and previously striking deals with Google and Oracle—OpenAI is signaling a multi-cloud strategy designed to ensure flexibility, stability, and independence as it scales globally.
The Scale of OpenAI’s Ambition
OpenAI’s expansion plans are nothing short of astronomical. The company is targeting a US$1.4 trillion infrastructure buildout to develop 30 gigawatts of computing capacity—enough to power 25 million U.S. homes. Altman has said the company eventually wants to add 1 gigawatt of compute every week, with each gigawatt carrying a capital cost of over US$40 billion.
Amazon’s upcoming deployment will include Nvidia GB200 and GB300 AI accelerators, specifically built to handle advanced AI training and inference tasks. These chips will be housed in new AWS data clusters designed exclusively for OpenAI’s workloads.
Balancing Growth, Losses, and IPO Plans
Despite an expected annualized revenue run rate of US$20 billion by year-end, OpenAI remains loss-making. The company’s heavy spending commitments—spanning Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and Nvidia—have raised concerns on Wall Street about the sustainability of the AI investment boom.
OpenAI is reportedly preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value the company at up to US$1 trillion, positioning it among the world’s most valuable startups. CFO Sarah Friar said the company’s recent restructuring was designed to streamline operations and prepare for this milestone.
A New AI Ecosystem Emerges
The AWS partnership not only diversifies OpenAI’s cloud base but also reinforces the broader AI infrastructure ecosystem. OpenAI’s foundation models, including its open-weight versions, are already available through Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s platform for businesses integrating AI systems.
For Amazon, the deal enhances its competitive position against Anthropic, another leading AI company it heavily backs, and highlights its growing investment in data centers—like the US$11 billion campus in Indiana—dedicated to AI development.
The US$38 billion AWS deal marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of both OpenAI and Amazon, redefining alliances in the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure race. As OpenAI scales toward its trillion-dollar IPO and Amazon reasserts its dominance in cloud computing, the partnership signals an era of hyper-scale AI collaboration—one that will shape the global technology landscape for years to come.
Sources: South China Morning Post (2025) , CNBC (2025)
Keywords: OpenAI, Amazon, Cloud Services, AWS, AI Partnership, Nvidia
