Recently launched Amazon artificial intelligence processors that aim to tackle Nvidia and the chips made by the other hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Google are shown at an Amazon lab in Austin, Texas, in July 2024.
REUTERS/Sergio Flores
Amazon is already the US leader in online shopping and cloud services, but now it has a new goal: making industry-leading computer chips. The e-commerce giant may have broad ambitions to one day challenge Nvidia, the market leader in AI chips, but until then it simply wants to reduce its reliance on the company’s chips.
Amazon is working on the third generation of its AI chips, called the Trainium2, which industry insiders told Bloomberg was a “make-or-break moment” for the company’s chip ambitions.
Luckily, they already have one important customer’s buy-in: Anthropic, which makes the chatbot Claude. On Nov. 22, Amazon announced it’s investing another $4 billion into Anthropic, doubling its total investment to $8 billion. As part of the deal, the Claude maker — perhaps the main rival to OpenAI — will continue to use Amazon’s Trainium series of chips. Amazon makes and invests in AI software and has the cloud infrastructure needed for AI – so if it can conquer the chip industry and produce chips comparable to the top models from Nvidia, it could become a dominant player in artificial intelligence.