Amazon completes $50 billion investment in OpenAI and increases its stake to 5%
Amazon has completed its $50 billion investment in OpenAI after transferring $35 billion in the second quarter. The tech giant now holds a 5% stake in the AI company.
Amazon completed the guaranteed $50 billion investment in OpenAI after transferring $35 billion to the company during the second quarter, according to an update in its quarterly report. The tech giant now holds 5% of the AI company’s shares.
In February, Amazon invested $15 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader $110 billion fundraising round. It committed to invest an additional $35 billion if the company meets specific targets, such as progress toward an IPO or a significant technological breakthrough. In April, OpenAI reached an agreement with Microsoft to modify their exclusive cloud deal, allowing the company to work with the cloud services of other tech giants, including Amazon. This change paved the way for the completion of Amazon’s investment, with OpenAI announcing on Friday that it finalized the $35 billion share purchase at the end of June.
Amazon also maintains a significant investment in OpenAI’s rival, Anthropic: it has invested $18 billion in the developer of Claude out of a total commitment of $35 billion.
At the same time, OpenAI reported on Friday that the number of active ChatGPT users has surpassed one billion, and the number of business customers has reached 2 million.
“As people’s confidence in technology increases, they use it more deeply. Six months after signing up, people send about 50% more messages every day and use ChatGPT for twice as many types of tasks,” the company stated on its website.
