Amazon's AI chief says demand is so strong that selling chips outside AWS won't hurt cloud revenue
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Amazon $AMZN is in talks to sell its Trainium AI chips for use in other companies' data centers. Until now available exclusively through Amazon Web Services, the custom-designed processors would reach a much broader market if those discussions result in deals.
Confirming the talks during an interview in Paris, Peter DeSantis — Amazon's senior vice president overseeing semiconductor, AI, and quantum efforts — said no potential customers would be identified at this stage. "We view AI infrastructure as rapidly evolving," he said. "And we're constantly looking at ways to get to more customers."
Amazon stock gained as much as 1.8% on the news, reaching an intraday high of $241.82.
Peter DeSantis said a major driver behind the push is rising international demand for locally controlled computing resources — particularly in Europe, where regulatory and political pressure has increased calls for sovereign AI infrastructure. Speaking to CNBC, DeSantis offered no specific timeframe for any agreements, but said the company sees the way businesses build AI infrastructure as being on the cusp of rapid, wide-ranging change — and intends to play a role in that shift.
When asked whether selling Trainium chips outside of AWS could undercut the company's cloud business, Peter DeSantis dismissed the concern. "There's so much underconsumption in AI," he said. "I'm not worried about it."
Demand for the chip's third iteration — which only started reaching customers earlier this year — has already outpaced available supply, with Bloomberg reporting it is largely sold out. A fourth version slated to arrive next year is also drawing significant early interest, the company said.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy first floated the prospect of selling chip racks to third parties in his April shareholder letter, putting the company's annualized chip revenue at roughly $20 billion across the Trainium, Graviton, and Nitro product lines. Jassy wrote at the time that selling to both AWS and external customers could push that figure toward $50 billion annually. The Trainium chip line has generated more than $225 billion in revenue commitments, Amazon said in April.
DeSantis positioned Amazon as a direct peer to Nvidia when it comes to chip development. "We're one of a very few players who have the ability to design a chip, design the physical attributes of that chip, and then do the production of that chip," he said.
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