Amazon Lands $38B Deal With OpenAI: 3 Signs to Buy the Stock Now

Amazon AMZN has once again demonstrated why it remains a dominant force in cloud computing and artificial intelligence, securing a landmark $38 billion multi-year partnership with OpenAI that positions the company at the forefront of the generative AI revolution. This landmark partnership, announced in early November 2025, marks a pivotal moment for Amazon Web Services as it reclaims momentum in the competitive cloud infrastructure landscape while demonstrating the company's ability to convert massive AI investments into tangible business outcomes.

AWS Solidifies Its Position as AI Infrastructure Leader

The OpenAI partnership showcases AWS' unique ability to operate large-scale AI infrastructure with clusters exceeding 500,000 chips, a capability that few competitors can match. Under the partnership, OpenAI gains immediate access to hundreds of thousands of state-of-the-art NVIDIA GPUs through Amazon EC2 UltraServers, including the advanced GB200 and GB300 accelerators. This deployment, targeted for completion before the end of 2026 with potential expansion through 2027, demonstrates AWS' operational excellence in delivering sophisticated architectural designs optimized for maximum AI processing efficiency.

The timing proves particularly significant following Amazon's exceptional third-quarter 2025 performance, where AWS revenues surged 20% year over year to $33 billion, marking the fastest growth rate since 2022. This acceleration directly addresses investor concerns that had plagued the stock throughout much of the year, as AWS had appeared to lag behind competitors in securing high-profile AI partnerships.

Financial Momentum Builds Across Segments

Amazon's third-quarter results revealed a company firing on multiple cylinders beyond cloud computing. Total revenues reached $180.2 billion, while earnings per share of $1.95 significantly surpassed the consensus estimate. North America sales climbed 11% to $106 billion, international sales rose 14%, and the advertising segment delivered an impressive 24% growth to $17.7 billion.

The company's raised capital expenditure forecast to $125 billion for 2025, with expectations for further increases in 2026, signals management's confidence in converting infrastructure investments into profitable growth. This aggressive stance on AI and cloud expansion positions Amazon to capture a disproportionate share of the estimated multi-trillion-dollar AI opportunity over the coming decade. With AWS generating 35% operating margins and accounting for the majority of Amazon's profitability despite representing only 17% of net sales, the cloud business serves as the company's primary profit engine with substantial runway for expansion.

The fourth-quarter guidance projects revenues between $206 billion and $213 billion, implying robust 10% to 13% year-over-year growth heading into the critical holiday season. Operating income guidance of $21 billion to $26 billion demonstrates improving operational efficiency even as the company invests heavily in AI infrastructure and capabilities.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings is pegged at $7.15 per share, which indicates a jump of 29.29% from the year-ago period.

Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus

Amazon.com, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote

Strategic Diversification Strengthens Investment Thesis

Amazon's competitive advantages extend well beyond AWS into its core retail operations, where AI-powered innovations drive meaningful improvements across fulfillment, delivery, and customer experience. The company expanded same-day grocery delivery to over 1,000 U.S. cities with plans to reach 2,300 by year-end, while its AI shopping assistant Rufus has attracted 250 million users whose purchase likelihood increases 60%. These AI applications directly translate infrastructure investments into tangible retail benefits, creating a virtuous cycle that competitors struggle to replicate.

The $8 billion investment in Anthropic, combined with the $11 billion Project Rainier data center dedicated to Anthropic workloads featuring 1 million Trainium2 chips, diversifies Amazon's AI exposure beyond the OpenAI partnership. This multi-pronged approach hedges against single-provider risk while establishing AWS as the preferred infrastructure partner for leading AI innovators. Amazon's ability to simultaneously serve competing AI companies demonstrates the neutrality and technical excellence that enterprises demand from cloud providers.

Valuation and Competitive Landscape Considerations

While Amazon shares have gained approximately 33.8% over the past six months, outperforming the broader retail sector, the stock's performance notably trails key competitors in the cloud and AI space. Alphabet GOOGL and Oracle ORCL has delivered stronger returns with 72.3% and 68.3% gains, respectively. Microsoft MSFT has returned 18.2% during comparable periods. This performance gap reflects investor concerns earlier in the year about AWS losing ground to Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, which reported quarterly growth rates of 40% and 34%, respectively.

AMZN's 6-Month Performance

The OpenAI deal fundamentally changes this narrative, positioning Amazon alongside the industry leaders in powering next-generation artificial intelligence workloads. Amazon's strategic investments in custom AI chips, particularly the Trainium2 processors that have become a multibillion-dollar business growing 150% quarter over quarter, provide additional competitive advantages that enhance margins while meeting surging AI demand.

Amazon's price-to-earnings ratio of approximately 32.46x represents a significant premium to the Internet Commerce industry average of 25.75x, though it remains well below the company's five-year historical average of 52.34x, suggesting the stock has room for multiple expansion as AWS growth re-accelerates. The valuation premium reflects Amazon's market leadership position and diversified revenue streams, yet the discount to historical norms indicates market skepticism that recent strong results have only begun to address.

AMZN's P/E F12M Ratio Depicts Premium Valuation

Conclusion

For investors, the confluence of AWS re-acceleration, the transformative OpenAI partnership, robust fourth-quarter guidance, and improving retail operations creates a compelling buy opportunity. AMZN currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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