OpenAI Is in Talks to Raise Up to $100 Billion From Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon

OpenAI is in talks to raise around $40 billion from Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon—its three largest infrastructure partners—as part of a massive funding round that could total up to $100 billion. Sources familiar with the discussions say.

According to those sources, Nvidia is considering an investment of up to $20 billion, while Amazon could commit $10 billion or more. Microsoft, which already owns a 27% stake in OpenAI, may also inject several additional billion dollars.

These commitments would form part of a new round in which Sam Altman’s startup aims to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation of $750 billion. The capital is needed to support an expansion that requires vast amounts of expensive data-center capacity.

The prospect that the company’s main investors could be the same technology groups that supply OpenAI with chips and infrastructure for training and running its AI models is heightening concerns among some analysts about the financial circularity of a loss-making startup.

At the same time, Altman is close to securing an additional $30 billion from SoftBank. Japan’s billionaire Masayoshi Son is thus increasing his bet on the leading developer of AI models. OpenAI is also holding talks with sovereign wealth funds, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the MGX fund.

Sources caution, however, that it remains unclear whether all potential investors will ultimately join the deal and whether the company will succeed in reaching its stated $100 billion target.

Last year, Nvidia reached a preliminary multi-year agreement with OpenAI for investments of up to $100 billion, to be deployed in $10 billion tranches as new data-center capacity comes online. However, the agreement has yet to be formally finalized. A $20 billion Nvidia investment as part of the new round could either come on top of that arrangement or trigger a revision of its terms.

OpenAI also has a seven-year, $38 billion agreement with Amazon to use AWS cloud infrastructure. A new contribution could become part of a broader deal with Amazon that would include access to OpenAI’s technologies.

Microsoft was among the company’s earliest investors and, following a restructuring of the relationship last year, remains the largest shareholder in OpenAI’s commercial arm.

Amazon and OpenAI declined to comment. Nvidia and Microsoft did not respond to requests. Some details of the talks between OpenAI and the three corporations were previously reported by The Information.