Intel Corp. and Amazon Web Services. Inc. (AWS) have entered a co-investment in custom chip designs under a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar framework. Specifically, this deal will cover products and wafers from Intel.

This is a significant expansion of the two companies’ longstanding strategic collaboration. The purpose is to help customers power virtually any workload and accelerate the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

As part of the expanded collaboration, Intel will produce an AI fabric chip for AWS on Intel 18A, the company’s most advanced process node. Moreover, Intel will also produce a custom Xeon 6 chip on Intel 3, building on the existing partnership under which Intel produces Xeon Scalable processors for AWS.

“This expansion of our longtime relationship with AWS reflects the strength of our process technology and delivers differentiated solutions for customer workloads,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. In addition, Gelsinger said, “Intel’s chip design and manufacturing capabilities…will unleash innovation across our shared ecosystem and support the growth of both businesses…”

Meanwhile, Matt Garman, CEO at AWS, affirmed its commitment to delivering the most powerful and innovative cloud infrastructure to its customers. In addition, Garman said, “By co-developing next-generation AI fabric chips on Intel 18A, we continue our long-standing collaboration, dating back to 2006…Our continued collaboration allows us to empower our joint customers with the ability to run any workload and unlock new AI capabilities.”

Leading-Edge Semiconductor Manufacturing

With this expanded collaboration, Intel and AWS underscore their commitments to accelerating U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturing. At the same time, creating a vibrant AI ecosystem in Ohio. Intel continues its commitment to the New Albany area and its plans to build leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing.

AWS is planning to invest US$7.8 billion to expand its data center operations in Central Ohio. This is on top to the $10.3 billion it has invested in the state of Ohio since 2015.

“This collaboration between Intel and AWS is a great development for U.S.-based manufacturing and solidifying Ohio as a leader in AI,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

AWS and Intel have a more than 18-year relationship dedicated to helping organizations of all sizes to develop, build, and deploy their mission critical workloads in the cloud. The collaboration is also supporting to reduce cost and complexity, and increase security. It is also aiming to accelerate business outcomes and scale to meet their current and future computing requirements.

Going forward, Intel and AWS also intend to explore the potential for further designs for production by Intel based on Intel 18A and future process nodes. Specifically, including Intel 18AP and Intel 14A, which are likely to hit production in Intel’s Ohio facilities.

17 September 2024