Inside OpenAI’s $110B Funding Round And Which Companies Made The Biggest Bets

In a move that shattered private capital raising records in the tech industry, OpenAI secured $110 billion in investments, propelling the company into rarefied financial territory ahead of an anticipated initial public offering. At the heart of the round are three heavyweight tech players whose bets signal confidence in generative AI‘s future.

According to a report from CNBC, Amazon emerged as the largest single backer, committing $50 billion to OpenAI’s latest financing. The investment structure begins with an immediate $15 billion contribution, followed by as much as $35 billion in later tranches tied to performance conditions, such as milestones or future corporate developments.

As part of the arrangement, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will serve as OpenAI’s exclusive third-party cloud provider for its enterprise platform, known as OpenAI Frontier, deepening a $3.8 billion partnership by $100 billion over the next 8 years, that combines capital and infrastructure plans. OpenAI also agreed to deploy substantial computing workloads on AWS hardware, including capacity powered by Amazon’s Trainium AI chips.

Chipmaking giant NVIDIA also placed a huge wager on OpenAI’s future with a $30 billion investment as part of the round. NVIDIA’s GPUs and next-generation AI accelerators are central to training and running models such as ChatGPT and its successors, and the investment deepens an existing engineering relationship.

By aligning financially as well as technically, Nvidia gains assurance that its silicon will play a cornerstone role in the computing backbone of OpenAI’s tools. In return, OpenAI secures advanced access to the high-performance computing necessary to train ever larger models, which is a resource that remains one of the most expensive inputs in the AI economy.

While some speculation has swirled about the exact status of earlier Nvidia funding plans, like broader, multi-year commitments reported previously, the formal $30 billion pledge underscores Nvidia’s stakes in the ongoing AI “arms race.”

Joining Amazon and Nvidia in the mega-round is Japan’s SoftBank Group, which also committed $30 billion in capital. SoftBank has been an aggressive AI investor in recent years, funneling money into companies like Perplexity and backing infrastructure initiatives aimed at solidifying OpenAI’s global reach.

According to Reuters, the round pushes its pre-money valuation to roughly $730 billion, a dramatic leap from earlier private valuations and a direct reflection of investor confidence in the company’s growth potential. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted user engagement metrics, such as 900 million weekly active users of ChatGPT and 50 million consumer subscribers, as evidence of strong demand for its offerings, reinforcing investor interest.

While the funding round stands as one of the largest private raises in history, OpenAI has indicated that additional investors may join as the round stays open. The company’s next milestone, an expected IPO later in 2026, will likely build on this capital base.