Amazon in talks to invest billions in OpenAI, source says

Jan 29 (Reuters) – Amazon is in talks to invest dozens of billions in OpenAI and the figure could be as high as $50 billion, a source told Reuters on Thursday. The talks are still in the early stages and the final numbers have not been finalized, the source said. Big Tech companies are racing to forge partnerships with OpenAI, betting that closer ties with the artificial-intelligence startup would give them a competitive edge in the AI race. OpenAI is looking to raise up to $100 billion in funding, valuing it at about $830 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday. SoftBank Group Corp is in talks to invest as much as an additional $30 billion in the ChatGPT maker. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development. Investing up to $50 billion could make Amazon the biggest contributor to the AI company's ongoing fundraising round. Amazon declined to comment, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters when contacted. OpenAI is grappling with rising costs to train and run its AI models as competition from Alphabet's Google ratchets up. Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft are also in talks to invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI, the Information reported on Wednesday. Nvidia, an existing investor whose chips power OpenAI's AI models, is in talks to invest up to $30 billion, while Microsoft, a longstanding backer, is in talks to invest less than $10 billion. OpenAI, which signed a $10 billion computing deal with Nvidia challenger Cerebras earlier this month, is laying the groundwork for its own IPO that could value it at up to $1 trillion, Reuters had also reported. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)

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