Tag: amazon

OpenAI closes record funding round: $110 billion invested at $840B valuation

At more than double the cost of last years record deal, the funding highly values OpenAI by investors, according to Reuters.

Amazon invested $50 billion, Nvidia put up $30 billion and SoftBank shelled out $30 billion, agreeing to a $840 billion valuation, the largest of any frontier AI lab by far.

«Strategic partnership» with Amazon
Amazon’s deal structure is slightly different, as it comes in the terms of a strategic partnership where OpenAI will receive $15 billion up front, and then qualify for the rest $35 billion «over the coming months.»

OpenAI has committed to using 2 gigawatts of capacity on AWS’ Trainium platform and will make their models available on Amazon’s services.

None of this is said to change OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI says in a release.

At the same time, OpenAI’s Nick Turley says they have surpassed 900 million weekly users and has 50 million paying subscribers, up from roughly 800 million before.

Read more: Sama’s thank you thread, writeups on Reuters, CNBC

Alexa+ exits beta and is now available for free to U.S. Amazon Prime users

Alexa+ is a powerful, Anthropic-based home assistant. (Picture: Amazon)
Launched in beta in March 2025, the Alexa+ generative AI model is a huge upgrade to the older «plain» Alexa assistant.

It can handle multiple complex requests and act like an agent, ordering up Ubers, reserving seats at restaurants or tickets to concerts. It also handles home automation tasks.

80% of American households have Amazon Prime, ticking in at 180 million users, and 70 million people have some kind of Echo device with Alexa on it.

That is a huge user base to start off from for a semi-new agentic LLM, even though it is partially powered by Anthropic.

The Alexa+ assistant can also be accessed through an app, or at Alexa.com, and non-Prime users can pay $20 a month for access.

Read more: Amazon’s announcement, writeups on The Verge and CNBC.

OpenAI closing in on $100 billion funding round at $830B valuation

The big guns are all out for OpenAI’s latest funding round. (Picture: generated)
In what looks like one of the strongest funding rounds in history, OpenAI is getting investments from SoftBank and half of the Magnificent Seven.

SoftBank and Nvidia will be the largest investors, clocking in at $30 billion each, while Amazon will pitch in «potentially» $20 billion and Microsoft will contribute «less than» $10 billion, according to Reuters and The Information.

Apparently, Amazon’s investment could come with a caveat that OpenAI expands its cloud server rental with the company, which will likely not be a large hitch.

This will also be SoftBank’s second investment in OpenAI, after recently completing a $41 billion investment, and selling out Nvidia.

That would bring their holdings to $71 billion, which is still short of Microsoft’s reported stake of $135 billion.

Read more: Reuters, and The Information, summarized by Reuters.

Amazon launches mini-chatbot to ask about the book you’re reading

"Ask this book" delivers spoiler-free plot details up to the point where you are reading.
It might be helpful to have a mini-AI for the book you are reading, but is it legal? (Picture: Amazon)
«Ask this book» is an always-on, non-opt-out feature for Kindle, made without asking a single author about how they feel about it.

It lets you «ask questions about the book you’re reading and receive spoiler-free answers» up to where you are in the book, Amazon says on its release page.

It is intended for those long reads or breaks between them, so you can ask for a refresher on «plot details, character relationships, and thematic elements» without leaving the page.

The chatbot is available for «thousands of best-selling Kindle books» in the Kindle iOS app in the USA, and is on it’s way to Android «next year.»

There is no option for authors to drop out, and the feature is always on, Amazon tells Publishers Lunch — and some are wondering if Amazon can be sued for creating derivative works.

Read more: Amazon’s release page, additional information on Publishers Lunch. Writeups on Gizmodo, Engadget.

Weekend roundup: Gemini is going to space, Apple chooses Google, and Amazon’s had it with Perplexity

(Picture: generated)

Gemini is launching to orbit
Google’s latest moonshot might almost be literal. They are preparing for sending their TPU processors into low-earth orbit, and maybe then build a proper AI data center in space — where there is ample sunlight to provide it with energy. They have already tested a TPU in orbit conditions in a particle accelerator and it survived, and the next step is the launch of two prototype satellites in early 2027. They call it Project Suncatcher, and say that «in the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute.»
More at: Sundar Pichai’s tweet, Google’s announcement blog

Google close to Apple deal for AI Siri
Apparently, Apple has chosen Gemini for its upcoming AI version of the Siri assistant. They will use what is likely a custom version of the model with 1.2 trillion parameters, running on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers. Apple supposedly also tested options from OpenAI and Anthropic, but Anthropic’s fees were too high and Apple already partners with Google for search results. The deal will cost Apple $1 billion a year, far less than the $20 billion Google pays Apple to be their search provider.
More at: Bloomberg, MacRumors, TechCrunch.

Read on for more!

Continue reading “Weekend roundup: Gemini is going to space, Apple chooses Google, and Amazon’s had it with Perplexity”

OpenAI partners with AWS for $38 billion of compute power

OpenAI are free to negotiate deals with Microsoft's rivals, but is still on tap to buy $240 billion of compute from them.
Microsoft no longer has dibs on OpenAI compute, and AWS are moving in to stifle their hunger. (Picture: generated)
After removing Microsofts «first right of refusal» in their Public Benefit makeover last week, OpenAI is already busy making deals with Microsofts competitors.

The new seven-year agreement doesn’t put a gigawatt number on the compute OpenAI is buying, but it costs roughly $40B to build out a 1 GW data center.

Continue reading “OpenAI partners with AWS for $38 billion of compute power”

Friday roundup: Unis hiring AI officers, OpenAI on jobs and Nano Banana

Broadcom touts a $10 billion order from a mystery client, believed to be OpenAI.
Not much is known about the custom chips Broadcom will make for OpenAI, scheduled for next year. (Picture: Adobe)

OpenAI will make custom chips with Broadcom
With Nvidia lurking in the background, more companies are working on their custom AI chips. Now OpenAI has entered the fray, said to produce their own chips with Broadcom next year. It will be for internal use, and won’t be released broadly. They have a long history with this, having first entered talks with TSMC last year. Broadcom said on its earnings call this Thursday that it had secured a $10B order for AI chips without naming from whom, and now the Financial Times is reporting that it is, indeed, OpenAI, who has no comment on this.
More at: Financial Times (Paywalled) and Reuters.

Amazon lens lets you shop for anything you can see
The latest feature in the Amazon Shopping app on iOS lets you simply point your camera on anything you like, and shop for the same or similar items in real-time. It partners with Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, to also answer questions about the products in the shop. It should «roll out to more customers in the coming weeks,» meaning there’s likely an Android version in the works.
More at: Amazon’s product page, and The Verge.

Read on for more News!

Continue reading “Friday roundup: Unis hiring AI officers, OpenAI on jobs and Nano Banana”

Amazon says it will reduce headcount due to AI efficiency

Amazon will reduce headcount as AI agent take over common tasks
Andy Jassy from a previous event. (Picture Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0)
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a company-wide email to workers yesterday, touting the progress they are making on AI implementation.

In it, he says AI agents are coming, and coming fast — and «it should change the way our work is done.»

Using AI everywhere
He wrote that Amazon has been on the bleeding edge of the revolution and is using AI in «virtually every corner of the company,» and goes on to list everything from intelligent shopping assistants to Alexa+.

Amazon has more that 1 000 generative services and applications built or in progress, Jassy says.

Continue reading “Amazon says it will reduce headcount due to AI efficiency”