OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has signed a large-scale cloud partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is the first time OpenAI has broken away from a mandatory product-use arrangement with Microsoft (MS) to work with Amazon.
OpenAI said on the 3rd (local time) that it has signed a new seven-year cloud usage agreement with AWS worth $38 billion (about 54 trillion won). Under the deal, OpenAI will immediately tap the computing infrastructure of AWS's "Amazon EC2 Ultra Server," which is equipped with hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs). AWS plans to build new dedicated infrastructure for OpenAI.
On the news, Amazon shares rose more than 5% early in the session to a record high.
OpenAI plans to use the secured computing power for a range of tasks from ChatGPT inference services to training next-generation models. It also projected it will be able to rapidly scale up large-scale tasks performed by AI agents.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said, "Stable, large-scale computing is essential to scale next-generation AI," adding, "Collaboration with AWS will help bring advanced AI to more people."
Matt Garman, AWS CEO, said, "AWS's optimized computing resources are uniquely positioned to support OpenAI's vast AI workloads," adding, "AWS infrastructure will play a central role in underpinning OpenAI's AI ambitions."
The OpenAI-AWS agreement is seen as OpenAI beginning in earnest to free itself from MS's influence and pursue independent management activities.
OpenAI had originally used MS's cloud services while receiving investment from MS since 2019. MS's cumulative investment totals $13 billion. However, late last month, as it finalized a governance overhaul to convert OpenAI into a public corporation, it decided not to grant MS priority negotiation rights for cloud computing any longer.
Earlier, in September, OpenAI also signed a contract with Oracle to purchase $300 billion worth of computing power, and in June it signed a deal with Google, a competitor in AI. As part of the governance overhaul process with MS, it also agreed to purchase $250 billion in cloud services.
Reuters reported, "Wall Street is questioning how OpenAI will raise related funds while it is in the red with no clear revenue model."
CEO Altman recently appeared on a podcast and said the company's annual sales are higher than the widely reported $13 billion and will exceed $100 billion in 2027.