Amazon commits $50B to OpenAI and expands AWS partnership

In short: Amazon says it will invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a record $110 billion funding round, with much of the money tied to a new long-term deal with AWS.

What happened

Amazon announced on February 27, 2026 that it plans to put $50 billion into OpenAI. The deal is part of a $110 billion funding round that values OpenAI at $730 billion before the new money is added.

Amazon said $15 billion is expected to go in by March 31, 2026 as Series C preferred stock (a special kind of share that often comes with different rights than regular stock). The remaining up to $35 billion is conditional. It depends on milestones in a Joint Collaboration Agreement, and it would not be paid if that agreement ends.

At the same time, Amazon Web Services, or AWS, becomes OpenAI’s exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI’s enterprise Frontier platform. Cloud services are rented computing power, like leasing a fleet of computers instead of buying them. OpenAI is also expanding a prior AWS deal by another $100 billion over eight years, including a commitment to use 2 gigawatts of Amazon Trainium chips, which are specialized chips built to run AI.

Other investors in the round include Nvidia and SoftBank, which are each reported to be investing $30 billion. Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest backer to date, keeps an option to participate without changing its core partnership.

Why it matters

This deal shows how expensive AI has become to build and run, mainly because it needs huge amounts of computing power and electricity. For people who use AI at work, it could influence where OpenAI’s business tools run and how reliably they scale, much like choosing one main power company for a growing city.

Source: TechCrunch AI