OpenAI, yet another $110 billion round. Now worth 840 billion

OpenAI has raised $110 billion in a deal that values the company at $730 billion. And it should be added that this valuation is pre-money, i.e. it does not take into account the latest capital raised, by adding this, the value rises to 840 billion.

The last round is dominated by Amazon, which invests USD 50 billion, the largest commitment ever made by the group in another company. Then came SoftBank Group and Nvidia, each participating with 30 billion. The round consolidates OpenAI's race to secure computing capacity and talent in a market where the cost of chips, data centres and cloud infrastructure continues to rise.

The agreement significantly strengthens the relationship between OpenAI and Amazon. In addition to the direct investment, OpenAI will use Amazon's proprietary chip, Trainium, and develop customised models for the group's engineering teams. An additional $100 billion spending commitment on Amazon Web Services over the next eight years is also planned. The two companies had already announced in November an agreement of some USD 38 billion in AWS services over seven years.

"Amazon can offer us a lot in terms of new demand and opportunities in the market," Sam Altman said in an interview with CNBC. Andy Jassy, Amazon's CEO, added that the transaction 'will provide a good return for Amazon in the long run'.

The new arrangement does not break the link with Microsoft, which remains among the main backers of OpenAI and until now its exclusive infrastructure partner. "Nothing in today's announcements in any way changes the terms of the relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI," the two companies said in a joint statement.