How to understand the circular dealmaking fueling the AI boom

There’s a lot of money changing hands in the tech world these days. AI companies are racing to secure a steady supply of compute. Chipmakers are placing bets on who they expect to go the distance. And, occasionally, competitors are even investing in one another.

OpenAI, on Friday, announced a $110 billion funding round, with $50 billion coming from Amazon and $30 billion from Nvidia, along with other backers. AMD and Meta last week unveiled a partnership that will see the chipmaker deploy...