OpenAI, Amazon Agree $38 Billion AWS Pact to Expand AI Compute

Post by : Bianca Suleiman

OpenAI has finalized a $38 billion agreement with Amazon that will move significant portions of the company's AI operations onto Amazon Web Services' U.S. data centers, representing a notable shift in its cloud strategy. The announcement follows OpenAI's recent revisions to its cloud relationship with Microsoft.

Under the arrangement, OpenAI will access "hundreds of thousands" of specialized Nvidia AI accelerators hosted by AWS, allowing it to expand throughput for services such as ChatGPT to meet rising user demand. The market reacted positively: Amazon shares rose roughly 4% after the news surfaced.

The pact coincides with regulatory approvals in California and Delaware for OpenAI's new corporate structure, a change intended to facilitate capital raising and a move toward profit-driven operations. Founded originally as a nonprofit, OpenAI has been investing heavily in infrastructure—reports suggest commitments surpassing $1 trillion across partnerships with Oracle, SoftBank and chip suppliers including Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom.

Large-scale AI workloads need vast computing power, a requirement OpenAI has publicly emphasized. Amazon states that OpenAI will begin using AWS compute immediately, with the core capacity expected to be deployed by the end of 2026 and the option to scale further in 2027.

The agreement also reinforces AWS's prominence in the AI startup ecosystem—already hosting competitors such as Anthropic—and highlights intensifying cloud competition as organisations race to secure advanced infrastructure needed for next-generation AI development.