Amazon Shifts $8 Billion AI Chip Bill to Special Purpose Vehicle

Amazon is restructuring its ownership of AI hardware in data centers by moving $8 billion worth of NVIDIA chips into a special purpose vehicle. This vehicle will sell debt to outside investors, buy the chips, and lease them back to Amazon.

The deal allows Amazon to keep running the chips while protecting its credit rating and moving the obligation into lease disclosures. Investors who buy the debt may not realize that the hardware's value depreciates quickly in Silicon Valley.

NVIDIA is also building similar financing structures with asset managers and banks, raising over $500 billion of outside capital for AI infrastructure. The company expects its AI labs to account for roughly a quarter of its business next year.