OpenAI and AWS seal record $38 billion cloud contract

In one of the largest cloud infrastructure deals in technology history, OpenAI has signed a multi-year, $38 billion contract with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run and scale its core artificial intelligence workloads. The landmark agreement secures a massive, diverse supply of computing power for the ChatGPT creator and ends Microsoft Azure’s long-standing exclusive hold on OpenAI’s cloud services.

The deal, announced Monday, November 3, 2025, sent Amazon's stock soaring to a new all-time high, cementing AWS's position as a dominant force in the global AI infrastructure race.

A massive deployment of NVIDIA power

AWS will provide OpenAI with immediate access to a vast network of compute capacity, including hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs (specifically the latest GB200 and GB300 chips). These resources are vital for training and running next-generation models.

OpenAI will begin using AWS immediately, with all planned capacity, including clusters optimized for low-latency performance, expected to be fully deployed before the end of 2026. The contract includes the option to expand capacity further in 2027 and beyond.

"Scaling frontier AI requires massive, reliable compute. Our partnership with AWS strengthens the broad compute ecosystem that will power this next era and bring advanced AI to everyone,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said about the deal.

Loosening Microsoft's grip

This $38 billion contract is a strategic pivot for OpenAI, which was exclusively reliant on Microsoft Azure as its cloud provider following Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar investment beginning in 2019.

The new deal with AWS formalizes OpenAI’s multi-cloud strategy, adding AWS as a key infrastructure pillar alongside existing, though smaller, agreements with Oracle and Google Cloud. This diversification provides resilience, negotiating leverage, and access to unique hardware.

For Amazon, the partnership is a major strategic victory, signaling to the market that AWS is the premier destination for massive, complex AI workloads, despite recent aggressive competition from Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.