Amazon in talks to invest up to $50 bn in OpenAI after cutting thousands of jobs

Amazon is reportedly in discussions to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. If the deal goes through, it would be one of the largest bets yet on the fast-growing AI startup. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is said to be leading the talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to WSJ. However, the details of any potential agreement are still being worked out and could change.

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OpenAI is looking to raise as much as $100 billion from investors in its latest funding round, which could value the company at around $830 billion. If Amazon invests tens of billions in OpenAI, it could become the largest contributor in the company’s ongoing fundraising round.

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Other big investors are also in talks. SoftBank, for example, could invest up to $30 billion. OpenAI is also seeking investment from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and venture capital firms. Its current investors include Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, and the United Arab Emirates fund MGX.

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A partnership with Amazon would strengthen the companies’ existing relationship. OpenAI has relied heavily on Microsoft for computing power, but recently signed a deal to buy $38 billion in cloud services from Amazon Web Services over several years. Amazon has also invested in OpenAI competitor Anthropic, putting $8 billion into the company and developing an $11 billion data centre campus for it in Indiana.

Amazon has been increasing its investment in AI both to improve its services and for internal use. At the same time, the company has been cutting costs, including job reductions. In October, it laid off around 14,000 employees and announced another 16,000 corporate job cuts this week.

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Founded in 2015, OpenAI has quickly become one of the most influential technology companies in the world. The company has spent billions to support the massive computing power needed for its AI models and to hire top researchers. OpenAI recently started showing ads as a new way to generate revenue.

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Ayushi Jain

Ayushi works as Chief Copy Editor at Digit, covering everything from breaking tech news to in-depth smartphone reviews. Prior to Digit, she was part of the editorial team at IANS. View Full Profile