For the first time, OpenAI models are available on AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a significant new partnership that brings OpenAI’s powerful models directly to its cloud platform. For the first time, OpenAI’s models are available for AWS customers, marking a pivotal moment in the cloud AI landscape.

The collaboration was confirmed as AWS announced that two of OpenAI’s newly launched open-weight reasoning models, boasting capabilities comparable to its proprietary ‘o-series’ models, would be accessible on AWS starting Tuesday. This integration makes these advanced AI models available through Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker AI, two of AWS’s key artificial intelligence services.

Dmitry Pimenov, OpenAI’s product lead, indicated that these models are offered with OpenAI’s full knowledge and approval, akin to how Amazon previously offered the DeepSeek-R1 model. This move places AWS in direct competition with Microsoft Azure, which has historically been OpenAI’s primary cloud partner and offers optimized versions of these new models for Windows devices.

This strategic alliance is a significant competitive play for both tech giants. For AWS, it solidifies its position as a leading provider of cutting-edge AI technology, enabling its vast enterprise customer base to readily leverage OpenAI’s advanced AI capabilities for their applications. AWS has traditionally hosted and financially backed competitors like Anthropic’s Claude, while also offering models from Cohere, DeepSeek, Meta, and Mistral, alongside its own proprietary solutions.

The announcement comes at a crucial time for AWS, as CEO Andy Jassy recently faced pointed questions from Wall Street analysts regarding the company’s competitive standing in the generative AI space, particularly concerning market share gains by rivals like Microsoft and Google. Analysts like J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth and Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak expressed concerns about AWS potentially falling behind in GenAI, to which Jassy responded by highlighting AWS’s significant scale advantage over competitors.

In a related development, Oracle recently announced a substantial $30 billion annual deal with OpenAI for data center services, underscoring the intense competition for AI infrastructure. Until now, AWS had not been a direct beneficiary of such high-profile OpenAI partnerships.

The partnership also benefits OpenAI, potentially strengthening its position as its relationship with Microsoft reportedly experiences strain, leading to ongoing renegotiations of their long-term deal. By aligning with AWS, the largest cloud provider, OpenAI gains a powerful strategic ally.

Furthermore, OpenAI’s decision to release these advanced reasoning models under an Apache 2.0 open-source license contrasts with Meta’s recent statements suggesting a potential shift away from open-sourcing all its future ‘superintelligence’ models. This move by OpenAI could appeal to developers and businesses looking for accessible, high-performance AI tools.

The integration of OpenAI models into AWS services is expected to empower a broad range of AWS customers, offering them an easier path to experiment with and deploy leading-edge AI applications.