Amazon Launches $110M AI Chip Initiative to Rival Nvidia

Amazon Web Services is offering free computing power with its Trainium chips to AI researchers, aiming to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market.

Amazon's 'Build on Trainium' program makes 40,000 first-generation Trainium chips available to researchers with $110 million in cloud credits.
The program seeks to attract researchers from top universities like Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley to develop AI models using Amazon's chips.
AWS's strategy includes open-sourcing research outcomes and providing detailed chip programming documentation, contrasting Nvidia's closed CUDA system.
Amazon's investment in custom AI chips is part of a broader trend among tech giants to reduce reliance on Nvidia and enhance control over AI infrastructure.
Despite its push for Trainium, AWS is also negotiating a $475 million deal with IBM to supply Nvidia GPUs, highlighting ongoing demand for Nvidia's technology.