(MENAFN- The Arabian Post)

A sweeping seven-year agreement valued at some US$38 billion has been struck between OpenAI and Amazon. com Inc.'s cloud arm Amazon Web Services, granting OpenAI access to hundreds of thousands of next-generation GPUs to fuel its artificial-intelligence models. The deal marks a significant shift in the cloud-computing landscape as OpenAI broadens its infrastructure base beyond longstanding relationships.

OpenAI said it will begin deploying AWS' compute capacity immediately, with all planned capacity scheduled to be online by the end of 2026 and scope to expand into 2027 and beyond. According to Amazon, the provision includes access to Nvidia's high-end AI accelerators - the GB200 and GB300 series - housed in large-scale data-clusters designed to train and operate frontier AI models.

The agreement comes amid a restructuring of OpenAI's partner and investment arrangements, including a revised deal with Microsoft Corporation that removed its exclusive right to host OpenAI compute workloads. Under that re-arrangement Microsoft retains significant economic and technology rights but no longer holds primary hosting exclusivity. Within that context, OpenAI's deal with AWS complements other infrastructure partnerships - notably a previously disclosed arrangement with Oracle Corporation to lease multiple gigawatts of data-centre capacity.

AWS's cloud business is reported to have seen robust demand amid surging AI workloads; its third-quarter revenue grew approximately 20 % year-on-year as per published estimates, and its backlog of contracted business reportedly exceeded US$200 billion. Amazon's share price responded to the OpenAI announcement by rising to record highs, as investors signalled confidence in AWS's positioning in the AI infrastructure race.

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman described the AWS partnership as“strengthening the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone”. AWS CEO Matt Garman emphasised the scale, security and global reach of AWS as foundational to OpenAI's ambitions.

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Industry analysts noted that the deal not only underlines the vast compute-power demands of training large-scale generative AI models, but also signals deepening competition among cloud providers. Historically, Microsoft had been seen as the primary infrastructure partner for OpenAI; Amazon's win suggests AWS has regained momentum. One such analyst described the agreement as“a hugely significant deal... clearly a strong endorsement of AWS compute capabilities”.

The deal also offers a glimpse into the scale of investment required to support frontier models. OpenAI previously announced plans to provision 30 gigawatts of computing power - a capacity large enough to power some 25 million U. S. homes - and has signalled spending commitments amounting to over US$1 trillion over several years. The AWS agreement thus becomes one of several major infrastructure commitments, alongside the Oracle-related gigawatt-scale leases and other chip-supplier arrangements.

From a strategic vantage, OpenAI's diversification of compute-hosting partners reduces concentration risk and increases resilience. It allows the company to align with different ecosystems, negotiate competitive terms, and access multiple global data-centre footprints. For Amazon, landing such a high-profile AI customer supports a broader narrative of AWS reclaiming ground, particularly in generative AI infrastructure where debate has centred on whether AWS was lagging peers.

Nevertheless, the magnitude of the deal raises questions around monetisation, operational risk and market saturation. OpenAI remains loss-making despite strong top-line growth, and the enormous scale of its commitments hinges on both model performance and market adoption. Some observers caution the surge of mega-deals in AI infrastructure might herald a bubble in expectations. Additionally, the deal leaves Microsoft with a still-significant role in OpenAI's ecosystem, but now alongside strong competition in terms of hosting options.

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