Amazon Web Services is considering selling its Trainium AI chips to other companies, a move that could directly challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market. According to Amazon's AI chief, Peter DeSantis, the company is in early-stage talks about such sales. This initiative stems from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s April shareholder letter, in which he highlighted the high demand for Amazon’s homegrown AI chips, suggesting they could generate up to $50 billion in annual revenue if sold to third parties. The potential move has sparked interest in how it might impact Nvidia’s position in the market.
The idea of selling Trainium chips to external clients would mark a significant shift for AWS, which has historically avoided direct chip sales. Jassy noted that while AWS makes money from cloud services tied to its chips, the company is also seeing its Trainium chip capacity sell out rapidly. In his shareholder letter, he stated that both the current Trainium chip and the upcoming Trainium4 model had sold out almost instantly. This has raised questions about how AWS could manage demand if it were to open up chip sales to third parties.
The potential sale of Trainium chips would require AWS to navigate complex manufacturing logistics, particularly with TSMC, which has become its key manufacturing partner. AWS spokesperson Doron Aronson confirmed that while the company has historically declined direct chip sales, Jassy’s comments suggest a future where third-party sales could become a reality. This development comes as Nvidia expands into new markets, including CPUs for AI, according to its founder and CEO, Jensen Huang.
Source: techcrunch
