Reddit Questions Whether AI Revenue Is Real as Amazon Lands $38B OpenAI Deal

Amazon Web Services signed a $38 billion infrastructure deal with OpenAI, expanding its AI cloud revenue stream.
Reddit skeptics argued Amazon and Microsoft inflate AI revenue by funding their AI partners, who then spend the money back on cloud services.
Amazon climbed to a top-five ticker by Reddit engagement as retail debate over AI revenue quality intensified.

$AMZN vaulted to a top-five position in retail-investor discussion on r/wallstreetbets and r/stocks on November 4 after sealing a massive cloud deal with OpenAI — even as a vocal faction of Reddit doubted whether the AI revenue bonanza is as solid as it appears.

The Deal That Rocked the Cloud

Amazon Web Services signed a $38 billion agreement with OpenAI, giving the AI giant access to Amazon’s infrastructure and chips. Multiple outlets covered the deal, with

$AMZN supporters noting it diversifies OpenAI’s cloud partnerships beyond

$MSFT Azure and provides a clear revenue catalyst for AWS. The deal comes as Amazon invests heavily in AI infrastructure, a theme that has dominated retail-investor discussion for months.

Reddit Pushes Back on the AI Revenue Narrative

The bullish cloud-deal story was met with pointed skepticism on r/wallstreetbets, where a highly upvoted post — earning more than 1,200 upvotes and 250 comments — argued that Amazon and

$MSFT are inflating their AI revenue through circular transactions. According to the post, Amazon gives billions to Anthropic, which then spends the money on AWS services — allowing Amazon to book its own investments as revenue. A similar pattern was described for

$MSFT and OpenAI.

$AMZN became a proxy for a bigger debate: Is the generative AI boom driven by real customer demand, or by a few deep-pocketed tech companies lending cash to their own startups? On r/stocks, where sentiment leaned bullish (average score of 0.55), the conversation was more measured — investors weighed the $38 billion deal against the possibility that the AI cycle may be less profitable than hyped.

AMZN

Broader Market Context

The day's news also highlighted

$AMD, which surged 58% in October after a processor supply deal with OpenAI. That deal further opens the AI infrastructure market beyond

$NVDA; the Reddit critique that

$NVDA 's valuation depends on a handful of loss-making AI labs resonated strongly with retail investors tracking the money behind the compute.

$AMZN

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