OpenAI breaks into AWS, putting GPT-5.5 and Codex inside Bedrock

The bigger story in OpenAI's April 28 move into AWS is not that another cloud can now host another model. It is that the frontier AI market is shifting away from single-cloud gravity. In OpenAI's source post, the company said three pieces are launching in limited preview together: OpenAI models on AWS, Codex on AWS, and Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI. That bundles model access, coding workflows, and agent deployment into one familiar enterprise buying lane.

The first practical consequence is obvious. GPT-5.5 can now sit beside the identity systems, security controls, compliance processes, and procurement rules that many large companies already enforce in Amazon Bedrock. OpenAI also said more than 4 million people use Codex every week, and that Bedrock-backed access starts with Codex CLI, the desktop app, and the Visual Studio Code extension. For buyers that already spend against AWS commitments, that sharply lowers the friction between a pilot project and something a security team will actually sign off on.

The second consequence is more strategic. Managed Agents means Amazon is not merely reselling model tokens. It is wrapping context handling, multi-step execution, tool use, orchestration, and governance into a runtime layer that enterprises can slot into existing operations. That changes the competitive question. The market is no longer only asking which lab has the strongest model this quarter. It is asking which platform controls the safest and least painful path from prototype to production.

The timing makes the move more consequential. OpenAI had only just started loosening the assumption that its most important products needed one exclusive cloud home. AWS moved immediately to turn that opening into distribution. If this limited preview expands quickly, rivals will need a better answer than price cuts. They will need a stronger enterprise control plane for agents, not just a longer model menu.