Amazon Explores $8 Billion Nvidia Chip Transfer to Investors
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reportedly exploring a strategy to transfer approximately $8 billion worth of advanced Nvidia chips off its balance sheet. According to the Financial Times, the company has been in discussions with investors to potentially move thousands of Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips into a special purpose vehicle. This vehicle would then lease the chips back to Amazon, with the costs funded through debt issuance by outside investors.
The proposed deal would involve Amazon offering investors an equity stake of up to 10% in the vehicle, while retaining no ownership interest itself. This approach aims to strengthen Amazon’s financial position by shifting the substantial expense of these chips to investors, allowing the company to adopt a more asset-light strategy.
The move aligns with a broader trend among U.S. hyperscalers to find less balance-sheet-heavy methods to finance their extensive data center expansions. A significant portion of data center costs comes from advanced chips used to train AI models. Amazon has announced plans to spend over $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, with a large portion allocated to its Amazon Web Services cloud unit for purchasing more chips and constructing additional data centers.
At the time of publication, Amazon shares were trading 0.07% lower at $251.70, according to Benzinga Pro.