Amazon is exploring the possibility of selling its custom-designed AI chips to third parties, expanding beyond their current role inside Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon's custom chip business already generates more than $50 billion annually and may soon sell Trainium processors to outside customers, directly challenging Nvidia. The company has spent years developing its Trainium and Inferentia processors to reduce reliance on third-party suppliers while lowering AI computing costs for customers.
Speaking to Bloomberg, AWS AI chief Peter DeSantis confirmed that the company is in discussions about allowing other organisations to use Trainium chips in their own data centres. While he did not reveal the names of potential customers, the comments offer a glimpse into Amazon’s growing ambitions in the AI infrastructure space.
However, the idea is still at an early stage. This is not the first time Amazon executives have hinted at such a possibility. In his annual shareholder letter earlier this year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said demand for the company’s AI chips had become so strong that selling them externally was being actively considered.
Jassy claimed that if Amazon's chip division operated as a standalone business and sold its chips to AWS as well as outside customers, it could generate an annual revenue run rate of around $50 billion. He added that demand was high enough that Amazon may eventually sell entire racks of AI systems to third parties.
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