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Dec 17, 2025

OpenAI said to be in talks with Amazon on $10B+ investment at $500B+ valuation

Bay Area Times
Bay Area Times
OpenAI said to be in talks with Amazon on $10B+ investment at $500B+ valuation

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Top stories today:

  1. OpenAI in talks with Amazon on $10B+ investment at $500B+ valuation
  2. Waymo said to seek $15B+ at ~$100B valuation led by Alphabet
  3. ChatGPT Images gets 4Ɨ faster generation, more precise editing
  4. Eli Lilly’s retatrutide tops expectations with 28.7% weight loss in trial
  5. U.S. unemployment hits 4.6%, highest in four years, despite job gains
  6. Google launches CC AI assistant for personalized daily email briefings

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0. Data and calendar

All values as of 6 AM ET / 3 AM PT, other than S&P500 and NASDAQ close (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT).

All times are ET.

Listen to our AI-generated podcast summarizing today’s newsletter (beware of hallucinations):

1. OpenAI said to be in talks with Amazon on $10B+ investment at $500B+ valuation

OpenAI hit a $500B valuation in a $6.6B share sale in Oct.:

  • The investment would help OpenAI fund its cloud commitments, including the $38B, seven-year AWS server commitment.

  • OpenAI reportedly plans to use Amazon’s Trainium chips as part of the discussions.

  • Amazon could not sell OpenAI models to AWS customers, as Microsoft retains exclusive rights.

  • Potential commerce partnerships were also discussed between Amazon and OpenAI.

  • Oct.: the talks reportedly began, following OpenAI’s corporate restructuring.

2. Waymo said to seek $15B+ at ~$100B valuation led by Alphabet

  • Reportedly at a $350M+ annual revenue run rate.

  • Waymo competes with Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox and operates driverless robotaxis in multiple cities.

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4. ChatGPT Images gets 4Ɨ faster generation, more precise editing in latest update

OpenAI.

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