Alongside the investment, OpenAI and Amazon have also reached a deal in which OpenAI will utilise 2GW of computing capacity powered by Amazon’s in-house Trainium chips.
US artificial intelligence platform OpenAI has today (27 February) announced a $110bn funding round, reportedly a record for the private technology company, with a figure that is double that of its previous funding round.
Amazon invested $50bn, Nvidia invested $30bn and SoftBank invested $30bn. The investment brings OpenAI from a $500bn valuation to a $730bn pre-money valuation and OpenAI has stated that the organisation expects additional investors to join as the round progresses.
Commenting on the news, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, told CNBC: “We’re super excited about this deal. AI is going to happen everywhere. It’s transforming the whole economy and the world needs a lot of collective computing power to meet the demand.”
OpenAI also confirmed that the funding announcement will not impact the terms of a current partnership it holds with tech giant Microsoft, which was established in 2019. In a joint statement, both organisations agreed that the deal is “strong and central” to operations. CNBC also reported that Microsoft has the option to participate in OpenAI’s funding round.
Amazon’s $50bn investment in OpenAI will begin with an initial commitment of $15bn, followed by another $35bn over the course of the next few months when “certain conditions” are met. OpenAI also has an additional deal with Amazon in which the organisation will utilise 2GW of computing capacity powered by Amazon’s in-house Trainium chips.
The announcement comes at a time when many of the globe’s most influential technology companies are vying for dominance in the AI space. Earlier this week, Intrinsic, an Alphabet-owned software and AI company, announced that it was joining Google, as a means of enabling Google to move further into the physical AI space.
Japan’s SoftBank was also recently announced as the first to deploy SambaNova’s new SN50 chips within its data centres in Japan, while Intel is also partnering with SambaNova to roll out an Intel-powered AI cloud.
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