Amazon in Talks To Invest Up To $50 Billion in OpenAI
- Reference: 0180698290
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/01/30/1221255/amazon-in-talks-to-invest-up-to-50-billion-in-openai
- Source link:
> Amazon is in talks to [1]invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI , according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup. The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
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> Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive, is leading the negotiations with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to some of the people. The exact shape of a deal, should one be reached, could still change, the people said. Investing tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI could make Amazon the biggest contributor in the AI company's ongoing fundraising round. SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $30 billion more in OpenAI as part of the round, adding to the Japanese conglomerate's already large stake in the startup.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/amazon-in-talks-to-invest-up-to-50-billion-in-openai/ar-AA1VgV0F
Rufus and ChatGPT ads (Score:2)
Has anyone tried Amazon's pathetic chatbot, Rufus, which only exists because they block other chatbots from accessing Amazon's catalog? It's pathetic and frequently factually wrong on the only dataset which it should be an expert at - Amazon itself.
Given that ChatGPT is going to start advertising, this seems like a logical move. It gets rid of the Rufus problem and is in line with OpenAI's strategy.
My only question is whether this is another circular deal where no money is actually changing hands.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I hate the Rufus-suggested questions on product reviews so much.
"Is the item easy to use and reliable?"
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, and good luck asking it to narrow criteria for you because the regular search sucks so badly. Try prompts like "Exclude any products shipped from China" or "Include only hard-wired versions of this product." Their AI is just as bad as the regular search.
I hope OpenAI retains some independence (Score:2)
OpenAI has a piece to the puzzle but Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon etc have the apps so it makes sense partner. But lack of business pull is what makes ChatGPT good. Amazon made Alexa into a joke because it was driven solely by Amazon's business interests. Right now I pay OpenAI directly and it connects me straight to answers without having to go into the mess the Web has become (unless I want to check by clicking the links it gives as source), and I hope this remains an option.
Re: (Score:2)
Here's the thing about large financial investments.
- They are *never* without strings attached.
- The recipient will always cave, if the investment is big enough.
It's kind of like how universities put the names of contributors on buildings...if they don't, the benefactors wouldn't contribute. And the name is just the tip of the iceberg. With those large contributions, the benefactors stipulate all kinds of things that the university must do with the money. OpenAI is not immune to this kind of influence. He w
Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
If this is going to be one of those cyclic deals where we invest $50billion in you and you buy $50billion in our compute platform. "Yeah we got a $50billion investment. Obviously we're valuable" "we just made another $50billion in sales" whilst both hoping no one looks too closely and just pumps the stock.
Electric bill's come due (Score:2)
Daddy Bezos has to cut a check to keep the lights on.
I feel like my mind has just blown itself to pieces just now. How on God's Green Earth did humanity decide to value a company that [1]lost $12 billion dollars in just Q3 of 2025 [wsj.com] at $830 billion dollars ?
[1] https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-10-31-2025/card/openai-made-a-12-billion-loss-last-quarter-microsoft-results-indicate-e71BLjJA0e2XBthQZA5X
But they're NOT replacing workers with AI (Score:2)
We're supposed to just take them at their word that this is unrelated to the white collar job cuts.
Keep inflating that bubble (Score:1)
Well I guess everyone is going to keep on inflating that bubble so it doesn't pop. I hate this shit. Let it burn so we can buy reasonable priced RAM again.
Re: Keep inflating that bubble (Score:2)
Doubt people will be buying much for a while if this pops. It's so intermingled with so many huge companies now there's no way to be safe from it popping.
Re: (Score:2)
> Doubt people will be buying much for a while if this pops. It's so intermingled with so many huge companies now there's no way to be safe from it popping.
Well, at least we'll know how the hell we managed to speedrun right past the Recession and straight into a full-blown Depression.
When a bubble that big pops, even hot-swapping to shitcoin mining won't save society.
Re: Keep inflating that bubble (Score:2)
Well at least the prices might come a bit then! Not that it'll do many any good reducing prices.