OpenAI Funding Surge: Amazon Eyes $50B Stake as AI Competition Hits New Heights

Amazon is in early talks of investing close to $50 billion (£36.4 billion) in OpenAI in the coming weeks, sources confirmed on Thursday, 29 January. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy are reportedly leading discussions of Amazon's plans to contribute up to $50 billion (£36.4 billion) in a funding round for OpenAI.

In a Reuters exclusive report, the actual figures have yet to be finalised, with the total amount still subject to change. Reportedly, SoftBank Group Corp and other Big Tech companies are scrambling to partner with OpenAI to secure their market position in the current race to lead the AI industry.

The artificial intelligence startup behind the popular AI tool ChatGPT is seeking to raise $100 billion (£72.8 billion) in funding, which puts its valuation at $830 billion (£603 billion). The report stated that SoftBank Group is also in talks of investing $30 billion (£21.8 billion) in OpenAI.

OpenAI's Foothold

Valued at $500 billion, OpenAI is among the world's biggest private companies that are shaping the future of tech industries, joining the ranks of Elon Musk's SpaceX and his AI startup xAI; the company behind TikTok, ByteDance; and California-based AI research company behind the AI tool Claude, Anthropic. OpenAI was founded in 2015 and thrust to fame when the AI chatbot ChatGPT was launched in 2022. OpenAI has since dominated the AI race.

According to a CNBC report, OpenAI and Amazon have been discussing a potential investment from the latter since 2025. The final agreement could potentially include the use of Amazon's AI chips.

Amazon could become OpenAI's largest fundraising contributor, and the investment could strengthen the American tech company's ties with OpenAI, currently considered a central player in the global AI landscape. In January of 2026, OpenAI has also reportedly signed a $10 billion (£7.2 billion) deal with Cerebras and is positioning itself for a possible valuation that will reach up to $1 trillion (£727 billion).

In an early January report by Bloomberg, Altman reportedly met with the Middle East's top investors to secure funding of at least $50 billion (£36.4 billion). Billions of dollars have been raised by OpenAI in the past years to fund data centres, AI chips, and manpower for building AI systems. In AI infrastructure alone, OpenAI has set a budget of $1.4 trillion (£1 trillion) in the next few years.​

A Strategic Move in AI Funding

​Amazon's decision to invest heavily in OpenAI could solidify its position in AI and cloud computing. Amazon already owns the world's largest cloud platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the tech giant has also invested in Anthropic, one of OpenAI's biggest rivals. Its Anthropic investment added $8 billion (£5.85 billion) to its valuation.

In late 2025, Amazon closed a $38 billion (£28 billion) cloud infrastructure deal with OpenAI. Amazon made up for 'lagging' in the AI race by spending $11 billion (£8 billion) in building an AI data centre in Indiana. It was called Project Rainier, and this move by Amazon was seen as suggesting it was 'regaining momentum,' according to a report by Investing.com.

​AI infrastructure is essential to providing the massive compute resources and specialised AI chips to train and host state-of-the-art AI models. Amazon's investment in OpenAI underscores the competition going on in the global AI sector, including the high stakes involved. If closed, the deal could strengthen Amazon's foothold in the AI competition.