AWS CEO Adam Selipsky and nVidia Founder Jensen Huang have announced an expanded partnership at the AWS re:Invent 2023 conference. Selipsky took a swipe at Microsoft during the event, referring to the recent turmoil at OpenAI, which is Microsoft’s largest AI investment. Selipsky emphasized the importance of having a cloud provider with multiple model providers and a variety of AI options. He stated, You don’t want a cloud provider that’s beholden primarily to one model provider, you need a real choice…The events of the past 10 days have made that very clear.
Amazon Web Services unveiled new custom chips for servers and AI, along with a workplace AI assistant to rival Microsoft’s OpenAI-powered Copilot. To counter Microsoft’s exclusive partnership with OpenAI, Amazon has been working to provide corporate customers with access to alternative AI models. They have also invested up to $4 billion in OpenAI’s competitor, Anthropic. During the conference, Selipsky introduced the fourth version of Graviton processors, which are based on UK chip designer Arm’s architecture. He claimed that these processors are the most powerful and energy-efficient chips that Amazon has ever built. Amazon also showcased the second generation of Trainium, their chip designed for building large AI systems.
In addition to the chip announcements, Amazon deepened its partnership with Nvidia. AWS will now offer customers access to Nvidia’s latest AI processors and host their AI training as a service platform, DGX Cloud.
The competition between Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud computing space has been fierce. While AWS has traditionally been considered the market leader, Microsoft’s alliance with OpenAI has helped them gain ground, especially with their language model, which powers the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
During the conference, Amazon also introduced Amazon Q, an AI assistant designed for businesses and employees. This assistant competes with Microsoft’s Copilot and can generate content, answer questions, and analyze data tailored to a company’s specific needs.
The three major cloud computing companies, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, are all investing in semiconductors to optimize their infrastructure and reduce operating costs. They are also aiming to create alternatives to Nvidia, whose processors currently dominate the market for training AI models.
With the announcement of these new developments and expanded partnerships, Amazon is positioning itself to continue being a key player in the cloud computing and AI industries.
