Alexa could soon run on OpenAI tech as Amazon holds talks

Amazon may be considering a new AI partnership that could bring OpenAI’s models into products like Alexa. According to reports, discussions are underway between Amazon and OpenAI, though nothing has been finalised yet. The talks are said to cover both product integration and a possible financial investment. Also Read: Rockstar Games isn’t using generative AI for GTA 6, Take-Two CEO confirms

Discussions still ongoing

People familiar with the matter told CNBC that Amazon is exploring the use of OpenAI’s AI models across some of its internal systems, including Alexa. At the same time, Amazon is also said to be weighing a significant investment in OpenAI, potentially running into tens of billions of dollars. The structure and size of any such deal are still unclear and could change. Also Read: How an Anthropic AI release triggered a $285 billion stock sell-off

The report adds that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are directly involved in the discussions. Amazon has not commented publicly on the talks. The Information had earlier reported that the two companies were exploring a broader partnership. Also Read: Grok Imagine 1.0 brings 10-second AI videos with audio support to take on OpenAI’s Sora

Why Alexa is central to the talks

Alexa appears to be a key reason behind Amazon’s interest. The voice assistant, which has been around for over a decade, was updated last year with a new version aimed at handling more complex and conversational queries. The updated Alexa+, as Amazon calls it, is built to work with more than one AI model instead of depending on a single system.

Amazon has described Alexa+ as “model agnostic.” In simple terms, this means Alexa can choose between different AI systems depending on the task. While Amazon has developed its own Nova models, it already uses third-party models when required.

How OpenAI could fit in

At present, some of Alexa+’s more demanding queries are handled by Anthropic’s Claude model. Amazon has invested heavily in Anthropic and hosts its models through the Bedrock platform on AWS. Speaking to CNBC, Amazon’s Alexa head Daniel Rausch said that most Alexa requests still run on Amazon’s own models, but the company works with dozens of models overall.

If OpenAI models are added to this setup, they would become another option Alexa could draw from. This would give Amazon more flexibility as it continues to refine the assistant’s capabilities.

What OpenAI gets in return

As part of the talks, OpenAI may also get access to Amazon’s AI infrastructure, including its own chips and computing capacity. That would be a change from how OpenAI operates today, as it has mostly relied on Microsoft for cloud and compute resources so far.

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An Amazon tie-up could also raise questions around OpenAI’s other partnerships. OpenAI already works with Apple on Siri, and Apple has announced plans to use Google’s Gemini models in future updates. Sources cited by CNBC suggest OpenAI views Amazon as a stronger fit for its enterprise-focused goals, especially as it continues to expand beyond consumer-facing tools.