Sam Altman’s aggressive strategy towards competitors now includes a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
OpenAI has released two reasoning models comparable to its o-series, and Amazon announced that these models will debut on AWS, marking a first for OpenAI models on the platform. They will be options with Amazon AI services Bedrock and SageMaker.
Models can be accessed via Hugging Face, but Amazon provides them with OpenAI’s approval, according to Dmitry Pimenov, OpenAI’s product lead. A spokesperson highlighted the offering’s similarity to Amazon’s earlier introduction of the DeepSeek-R1 model.
This is a strategic move for both companies. For AWS, it solidifies its position alongside top model creator OpenAI.
AWS has been recognized as a significant supporter of Anthropic’s Claude, an OpenAI competitor. AWS offers Claude and models from Cohere, DeepSeek, Meta, and Mistral, along with its own models. Bedrock allows AWS users to create generative AI applications, while SageMaker facilitates AI model training for analytics.
Microsoft, though not OpenAI’s exclusive provider since January, remains a key cloud partner. OpenAI also announced Microsoft’s versions of these new models, optimized for Windows.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has faced scrutiny as Microsoft gains cloud business with OpenAI. During Amazon’s quarterly call, analysts questioned AWS’s competitive stance in AI.
Jassy defended AWS, still larger than its next competitor, while Oracle reported a lucrative $30 billion annual deal with OpenAI for data services, overshadowing AWS.
For OpenAI, partnering with AWS benefits their strained relationship with Microsoft, and aligns with larger cloud access strategies.
The partnership enables AWS enterprise clients to utilize OpenAI models in AI applications, while Altman outpaces Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. OpenAI’s models, released under an Apache 2.0 license, contrast with Meta’s cautious open-source approach to future AI models.