Morning Business Report: Amazon lands $38 billion cloud deal with OpenAI as AI stocks surge

Amazon is expanding its artificial intelligence footprint with a massive new partnership.

(LILAMAX)- Amazon is expanding its artificial intelligence footprint with a massive new partnership. OpenAI has signed a $38 billion deal with Amazon Web Services, granting it immediate access to NVIDIA’s high-performance GPUs. The agreement marks one of OpenAI’s biggest strategic moves away from Microsoft, which had served as its exclusive cloud provider until earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration says it will comply with a court order to fund U.S. food aid benefits for November—but only at half the normal amount. A separate food program for low-income women and children, known as WIC, received temporary funding. Roughly 42 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits nationwide.

AI stocks again lifted markets higher Tuesday, with the NASDAQ and S&P 500 closing up while the Dow Jones fell slightly.

In other economic news, a new study finds that college degrees remain a strong financial investment, even when factoring in student debt. Degree holders earn an average of $8,000 more per year than those who did not complete their programs, though debt still weighs heavily on many borrowers.

Finally, the Commerce Department is threatening to impose an antidumping tariff on Italian pasta, which could add a 91% duty on exports such as rigatoni and spaghetti—on top of the 15% tariff already in place under the Trump administration.