Oracle spends more than $100 million on Ampere chips
2023.09.22 18:34
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A screen displays the logo and trading information for Oracle Corporation on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 30, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
(Reuters) -Oracle Corp agreed to prepay $104.1 million for processor chips made by startup Ampere Computing, according to Oracle (NYSE:)’s proxy statement filed on Friday.
Oracle also invested $400 million in Ampere through a convertible note in its fiscal 2023, the proxy said.
Ampere builds custom server chips based on Arm technology that compete with designs produced by Intel (NASDAQ:) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:), which use X86. Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings.
The idea behind the investment in Ampere – and its chip purchases – is to give Oracle’s cloud an advantage over rivals. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) makes its own server chips that compete with Ampere, and Google (NASDAQ:) makes its own artificial intelligence processors.
Ampere declined to comment. Oracle did not return a request for comment.
