• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives increased Amazon's price target to $340 from $330, maintaining an Outperform rating.
  • The move follows Amazon's new $38 billion, multi-year partnership with OpenAI, where AWS will supply EC2 UltraServers to power OpenAI's AI workloads through 2026 and beyond.
  • The agreement significantly strengthens Amazon's competitive position in artificial intelligence, building on its existing partnership with Anthropic.

Analyst Bullish on AWS AI Momentum

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives raised his price target on Amazon.com Inc. to $340 from $330, citing the company's massive new partnership with OpenAI as a key catalyst for future growth. The analyst maintained his Outperform rating on the stock, which was trading around $285 in afternoon trading Thursday.

The target increase comes just days after Amazon Web Services announced a landmark $38 billion agreement to provide OpenAI with computational resources through 2026. Under the multi-year arrangement, AWS will supply its EC2 UltraServers and substantial GPU/CPU capacity to power OpenAI's artificial intelligence development and deployment.

"This deal fundamentally strengthens Amazon's hand in the AI arms race," Ives said in his note to clients. "We view this as another major proof point that AWS is gaining significant AI momentum."

Infrastructure as Competitive Moat

The OpenAI partnership represents one of the largest AI infrastructure deals to date and positions AWS as a critical provider of computational power for leading generative AI companies. The agreement builds on Amazon's existing strategic partnership with Anthropic, creating what analysts see as a powerful dual-track approach to capturing AI infrastructure demand.

Amazon's cloud division has been aggressively expanding its AI capabilities amid surging global demand for computational resources. The company has been restructuring certain AWS divisions to streamline costs while focusing investment on AI and cloud solutions, according to people familiar with the matter.

While Microsoft's earlier $10 billion investment in OpenAI positioned Azure as a core AI infrastructure provider, Amazon's latest partnership signals an intensifying competitive battle for AI supremacy. The deal structure, which involves providing raw computational power rather than equity investment, may help Amazon avoid some of the regulatory scrutiny facing other big tech AI partnerships.

Market Implications

The Wedbush upgrade reflects growing analyst confidence that Amazon's cloud division is successfully positioning itself as the default infrastructure provider for the AI revolution. AWS revenue growth has already been accelerating in recent quarters, bolstering Amazon's overall profitability despite challenges in the e-commerce environment.

Industry observers note that the scale of the OpenAI agreement underscores U.S. leadership in cloud and AI technologies, with potential implications for international technology alignments. Similar multi-billion-dollar deals have emerged between Chinese AI companies and China's cloud leaders, highlighting a global race to dominate AI compute resources.

Amazon representatives declined to comment on the specific financial implications of the OpenAI partnership when reached Thursday. The company is scheduled to report earnings next week, where analysts expect further details on AWS performance and AI infrastructure investments.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the duration of the AWS-OpenAI partnership. The agreement runs through 2026 and beyond.