OpenAI raises $110 billion in largest-ever private tech funding round, Nvidia throws in $30 billion — AI startup now valued at $730 billion
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Image credit: OpenAI
Funding round overview
OpenAI announced this week that it has closed a $110 billion funding round backed by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank — the largest private tech financing in history. The round values the ChatGPT maker at $730 billion pre‑money, or $840 billion including the capital raised.
- Amazon: $50 billion (initial commitment of $15 billion, with the remaining $35 billion contingent on unnamed conditions)
- Nvidia: $30 billion
- SoftBank: $30 billion
Additional investors are expected to join as the round progresses. This valuation marks a significant jump from OpenAI’s $500 billion in secondary financing last October and more than doubles the $40 billion raised last year.
Nvidia partnership
Under the terms of Nvidia’s stake, OpenAI has committed to using:
- 3 GW of dedicated inference capacity
- 2 GW of training capacity
These resources will run on Nvidia’s next‑gen Vera Rubin GPU architecture, the successor to the current Blackwell architecture. The capacity is in addition to the Hopper and Blackwell systems that OpenAI already operates across Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, and CoreWeave.
Amazon partnership
OpenAI is expanding its existing $38 billion AWS compute agreement by $100 billion over the next eight years. The company has also committed to consuming at least 2 GW of Amazon’s proprietary Trainium AI chip capacity.
AWS becomes the exclusive third‑party cloud distribution channel for Frontier, OpenAI’s enterprise platform. The two companies are also developing a new “stateful runtime environment” that will allow OpenAI models to run natively on Amazon’s Bedrock platform. According to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, this will “change what’s possible for customers building AI apps and agents.”
Relationship with Microsoft
OpenAI and Microsoft issued a joint statement confirming that the Amazon deal does not change their existing arrangement. Azure remains the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI’s APIs and first‑party products, and Microsoft retains its exclusive license to OpenAI’s intellectual property.
User metrics and outlook
OpenAI cited its current user figures to justify the scale of investment:
- 900 million weekly active ChatGPT users
- 50 million paid consumer subscribers
- Weekly Codex users have more than tripled since January to 1.6 million
The official press release states:
“We are entering a new phase where frontier AI moves from research into daily use at global scale. Leadership will be defined by who can scale infrastructure fast enough to meet demand, and turn that capacity into products people rely on.”
The funding round will enable OpenAI to scale infrastructure, develop new products, and ensure that “AGI benefits all of humanity.”