Amazon is exploring a transaction that could shift approximately $8 billion of advanced Nvidia artificial-intelligence chips into an investment vehicle backed by outside capital, another sign that the extraordinary cost of building AI infrastructure is reshaping Big Tech financing.
Amazon has held discussions with investors about transferring thousands of Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips into a special-purpose vehicle, according to reporting citing people familiar with the matter.
Amazon would then lease the chips back from the vehicle.
The special-purpose vehicle would raise financing from outside investors through debt issuance, potentially allowing Amazon to use a more asset-light structure for some of its AI infrastructure.
Amazon could also offer investors an equity stake of as much as 10% in the vehicle.
The chips involved were either purchased or leased by Amazon and are being installed across more than a dozen U.S. data centers in five states, including Nevada and Virginia.
Neither Amazon nor Nvidia had immediately commented on the reported discussions.
The proposed structure is significant because the AI investment boom increasingly involves financing mechanisms beyond conventional corporate capital spending.
The most advanced processors are expensive, data centers require enormous investment and AI companies are committing hundreds of billions of dollars to computing infrastructure.
Moving chip assets into a special-purpose vehicle could allow outside investors to finance part of that buildout while Amazon retains operational access to the hardware through lease agreements.
But such structures also shift the way investors need to evaluate financial exposure.
The economic risk associated with AI infrastructure can move among technology companies, lenders, private-credit investors and specialized investment vehicles rather than remaining entirely on a technology company’s balance sheet.
That trend is becoming increasingly important as markets debate whether the enormous capital being committed to artificial intelligence will generate sufficient returns.
The reported Amazon transaction remains under discussion. There is no indication that the proposed $8 billion structure has been completed.
Investors will therefore watch whether Amazon proceeds with the vehicle, how the financing is structured and whether similar transactions become a larger component of Big Tech’s AI infrastructure strategy.
