Amazon is aggressively expanding its AI infrastructure, but a new report reveals the company is buying more GPUs than it can currently power. Internal emails seen by Business Insider show that Amazon is acquiring billions of dollars' worth of Nvidia GB300 server racks each month, even though some of its data centers lack the electricity to run them. The hardware is being stored in warehouses until power capacity is available, a phenomenon dubbed "dark GPUs."
The emails describe Amazon's Early Rack Receipt process, where AWS took in around $5 billion worth of Nvidia racks in August alone, with plans to bring in roughly $3 billion more each month. This approach ties up significant cash upfront, but Amazon is willing to do so to secure early hardware capacity. Some US-based AWS facilities are unable to install and activate the servers due to power constraints.
The dark GPU issue is adding financial pressure to Amazon's data center ventures. The company's free cash flow turned negative in the second quarter for the first time since 2023, with capital expenditures expected to reach around $220 billion this year. Amazon is spending more than any other hyperscaler to build new AI capabilities, changing its usual business practices to do so.
An Amazon spokesperson defended the practice, calling it "best business practice." The company expects significant financial returns from its massive AI infrastructure build-up, viewing AI as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted that AWS has been through similar challenges before.