The maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has secured $110 billion in funding commitments from Amazon, SoftBank, and Nvidia, valuing the company at a pre-money $730 billion.
Amazon is leading the group of tech heavyweights with a planned $50 billion commitment, followed by $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman said Friday. Additional investors are expected to join the round as it progresses.
Amazon will begin with an initial $15 billion investment and plans to deploy the remaining $35 billion in the coming months subject to preset conditions.
“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 wrote.
Altman added that ChatGPT now has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million consumer subscribers.
“We are entering a new phase where frontier AI moves from research into daily use at global scale,” he said. “Leadership will be defined by who can scale infrastructure fast enough to meet demand, and turn that capacity into products people rely on.”
Strategic cloud and chip partnerships
OpenAI’s multiyear partnership with Amazon will include deploying advanced AI capabilities for enterprise customers and making Amazon Web Services the exclusive third-party cloud distribution provider for OpenAI Frontier.
The companies will also expand their existing $38 billion multiyear agreement by an additional $100 billion over eight years. The partnership includes developing customized models for Amazon developers to power customer-facing applications.
OpenAI also said it is expanding its collaboration with Nvidia.
The company emphasized that its long-standing partnership with Microsoft, in place since 2019, remains unchanged.
“The partnership remains strong and central,” OpenAI said in a statement.