OpenAI and Amazon sign US$38B deal for AI computing power

The OpenAI logo appears on a mobile phone in front of a screen showing part of the company website in this photo taken on Nov. 21, 2023 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

SEATTLE — OpenAI and Amazon have signed a US$38 billion deal that enables the ChatGPT maker to run its artificial intelligence systems on Amazon’s cloud computing services.

OpenAI will get access to “hundreds of thousands” of Nvidia’s specialized AI chips through Amazon Web Services as part of the deal announced Monday.

The agreement comes less than a week after OpenAI altered its partnership with its longtime backer Microsoft, which is no longer the startup’s exclusive cloud provider.

California and Delaware regulators also last week allowed OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit, to move forward on its plan to form a new business structure to more easily raise capital and make a profit.

“The rapid advancement of AI technology has created unprecedented demand for computing power,” Amazon said in a statement Monday. It said OpenAI “will immediately start utilizing AWS compute as part of this partnership, with all capacity targeted to be deployed before the end of 2026, and the ability to expand further into 2027 and beyond.”