Amazon seeks to offload $8bn of Nvidia chips to investors, FT reports

Amazon is seeking to offload about $8 billion of advanced Nvidia chips to investors through a new vehicle to strengthen its balance sheet, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

In recent weeks, Amazon has held talks with investors to gauge interest in a deal that would move thousands of Grace Blackwell chips it is installing in US data centres into a special-purpose vehicle, the report said.

Amazon would then lease the AI chips back from the SPV, which would tap outside investors through debt issuance, the FT said. The paper added that the move would let the cloud giant adopt a more asset-light approach to its balance sheet by unloading the expensive semiconductors onto investors. Amazon plans to offer an equity stake of up to 10 per cent in the vehicle, the newspaper said.

The chips in the proposed deal were bought or leased by Amazon. They are installed in more than a dozen US data centres across five states, including Nevada and Virginia, the report said.

Amazon and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters for comment outside regular business hours.

The FT report has not been confirmed by Amazon or Nvidia, and no final deal has been announced.

Sources: Reuters, CNA, The Economic Times