Intel and AWS Deepen Collaboration: Multi-Billion Dollar Investment in Chip Development

Intel and Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, have announced a substantial investment in the development of customized chip designs. This investment spans several years and amounts to several billion dollars. The expansion of their strategic partnership aims to support customers in handling nearly any workload and accelerating the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. As part of the extended collaboration, Intel will manufacture an AI-fabric chip for AWS based on the advanced Intel-18A process technology. Additionally, Intel plans to produce a customized Xeon-6 chip on Intel 3. These steps build on the existing cooperation, where Intel already manufactures Xeon Scalable processors for AWS. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger emphasizes that this reflects the strength of Intel's process technology and provides differentiated solutions for customer workloads. Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, views this collaboration as a continuation of the long-standing relationship that began in 2006, when the first Amazon EC2 instance with Intel chips was introduced. This partnership enables both companies to empower their joint customers to manage any workload and unlock new AI capabilities. Through this cooperation, semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, particularly in the state of Ohio, will be accelerated. Intel plans an impressive investment in its production facilities in the New Albany region. AWS intends to invest $7.8 billion in expanding its data center operations in central Ohio, in addition to the $10.3 billion it has already invested in the state since 2015. Furthermore, Intel and AWS plan to explore additional chip design opportunities on the Intel-18A platform as well as upcoming process nodes such as Intel 18AP and Intel 14A, which are to be produced in Intel's Ohio facilities.