OpenAI just shattered its own fundraising record. The maker of ChatGPT closed a $110 billion funding round — the largest private financing in history — led by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank.
Who Put In What
Amazon is the biggest backer at $50 billion, though $35 billion of that comes later once OpenAI hits certain milestones. Nvidia and SoftBank each contributed $30 billion. The round remains open, and more investors are expected to join.
The deal values OpenAI at $730 billion before the new money — nearly two and a half times what it was worth just a year ago when it raised $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation.
More Than Just a Check
Amazon's investment comes bundled with a major strategic partnership. AWS becomes the exclusive third-party cloud provider for OpenAI's enterprise platform, and the two companies are expanding their existing cloud deal by $100 billion over the next eight years. OpenAI will also build custom AI models to power Amazon's consumer products.
Worth noting: Amazon already has billions invested in Anthropic — OpenAI's closest competitor. It's now backing both sides of the biggest rivalry in AI.
The Bigger Picture
ChatGPT now has over 900 million weekly active users. The money isn't going into someone's pocket — it's going toward the chips, data centers, and infrastructure needed to keep up with that kind of scale.
CEO Sam Altman put it plainly: the world needs a lot of computing power, and OpenAI intends to build it.
At $730 billion, OpenAI is worth more than most countries' annual economic output. And the round isn't even closed yet.
