Amazon seeks to move about $8bn of Nvidia chips into a vehicle and lease them back, the FT reported

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 2 October, according to Reuters. The FT cited people familiar with the matter; its own article could not be opened from here.

Under the plan, thousands of Grace Blackwell chips that Amazon is installing in US data centres would be moved into a special-purpose vehicle, and Amazon would lease them back, the FT reported, according to Reuters. The vehicle would raise money from outside investors by issuing debt. SiliconANGLE, also citing the FT, reported that Amazon plans to keep using the chips under a lease agreement after offloading them.

The structure would let Amazon carry less hardware on its own books while keeping the computing power. It follows other large AI spenders that have moved data-centre assets into outside vehicles; SiliconANGLE pointed to Meta's sale of a stake in its Hyperion campus.

Amazon and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment, and no deal has been announced. The reports differ on how many data centres the chips sit in, so no count is given here. The plan, if it goes ahead, would be one of the larger chip-financing deals of the AI build-out so far.

• Reported Amazon seeks to offload about $8bn of Nvidia chips through a special-purpose vehicle, the FT reported, according to Reuters. Reuters (The Star)
• Reported Amazon would lease the Grace Blackwell chips back from the vehicle, which would issue debt to investors, the FT reported, according to SiliconANGLE. SiliconANGLE
• Reported Amazon and Nvidia did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Reuters (The Star)