Nvidia, Amazon, and Microsoft could invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI

OpenAI's latest funding round might hit peak circularity. According to The Information, the AI company is in talks with Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon about investments totaling up to $60 billion. Nvidia could put in as much as $30 billion, Amazon more than $10 billion—possibly even north of $20 billion—and Microsoft less than $10 billion. On top of that, existing investor SoftBank could contribute up to $30 billion. If these deals go through, the funding round could reach the previously rumored $100 billion mark at a valuation of around $730 billion.

Critics will likely point out how circular these deals really are. Several potential investors, including Microsoft and Amazon, also sell servers and cloud services to OpenAI. That means a chunk of the investment money flows right back to the investors themselves. These arrangements keep the AI hype machine running without the actual financial benefits of generative AI showing up in what end users pay.