SEATTLE (Realist English). Amazon has completed the largest investment deal in the history of artificial intelligence. On 31 July, the company announced the transfer of the final $35 billion tranche, bringing its total investment in OpenAI to $50 billion.
The initial $15 billion was invested in the first quarter of 2026, followed by $13.7 billion in the second quarter, and $21.3 billion after 30 June.
The deal was announced on 27 February 2026 as part of a massive $110 billion** OpenAI funding round, which also included Nvidia and SoftBank, each investing $30 billion.
OpenAI’s pre‑investment valuation at the time was $730 billion, and upon completion of the deal, the company’s market capitalisation, according to some sources, approached **$852 billion.
Deal terms: IPO or AGI
In February 2026, Amazon stated that the second $35 billion tranche would be transferred “in the coming months subject to certain conditions.”
According to industry media, the triggers could have been either OpenAI’s initial public offering (IPO) or the company’s achievement of artificial general intelligence (AGI) – technology comparable in capability to human thinking.
OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO last month. However, as The Information notes, Amazon did not specify in its SEC filings which event triggered the final tranche.
AWS — exclusive cloud partner
The investment deal was accompanied by a significant expansion of the commercial partnership. Key terms:
- AWS becomes the exclusive third‑party cloud provider for the OpenAI Frontier platform – a service that enables enterprises to build, deploy and manage teams of AI agents.
- OpenAI expanded its previous infrastructure agreement with AWS to **$100 billion over eight years (up from the previously reported $38 billion).
- OpenAI committed to using 2 gigawatts of computing capacity based on Amazon’s own Trainium chips, including the next‑generation Trainium4, expected in 2027.
At the same time, Microsoft Azure remains the exclusive cloud provider for API access to OpenAI’s models, and the company’s flagship products will continue to run on Azure.
‘We are super-excited about this deal’: market reaction
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the deal landmark: “AI will be everywhere. It will transform the entire economy, and the world needs an enormous amount of aggregate compute.” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said OpenAI “will be one of the big winners in the long term.”
Amazon shares rose more than 15% on Friday amid strong quarterly results: the company’s revenue in the second quarter of 2026 reached $200.6 billion (+20% year‑on‑year), with operating profit of $27.5 billion (+43%). AWS showed revenue growth of 36.7%. Amazon management raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $220 billion, citing strong AI demand.
ChatGPT approaches 1 billion users
Amid the deal’s closing, OpenAI continues to demonstrate impressive metrics. ChatGPT is approaching 1 billion weekly active users – one of the fastest growth rates in internet history, achieving this scale in less than four years.
This week, OpenAI also lowered prices on two of its models and accelerated the performance of a third.
The completion of the Amazon deal is a crucial step in OpenAI’s preparation for its IPO, expected before the end of 2026. The company is targeting aggregate compute spending of $600 billion by 2030.
The strategic alliance between Amazon and OpenAI fundamentally reshapes the balance of power in the AI industry. Amazon, long considered a laggard in the generative AI race, now gains direct access to cutting‑edge developments and exclusive rights to cloud infrastructure for OpenAI’s enterprise segment.
As one Wedbush analyst noted, this is “the most significant redistribution of power in the technology sector since the dawn of the cloud computing era.”
