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☆ Oracle spends more than $100 million on Ampere chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 22 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) agreed to prepay $104.1 million for processor chips made by startup Ampere Computing, according to Oracle's proxy statement filed on Friday. Oracle also invested $400 million in Ampere through a convertible note in its fiscal 2023, the proxy said. Ampere builds custom server chips based on Arm technology that compete with designs produced by Intel (INTC.O) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), which use X86. Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings. Amazon.com makes its own server chips that compete with Ampere, and Google makes its own artificial intelligence processors.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Oracle, Ampere, Ampere –, Max A, David Gregorio, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Oracle Corporation, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Oracle Corp, Ampere, Intel, Devices, Oracle, Amazon.com, Google, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Ampere, San Francisco

☆ Oracle to use Ampere's newest chips in its cloud offering
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSept 19 (Reuters) - Oracle (ORCL.N) said on Tuesday that it would use Ampere Computing's flagship processor chips in its cloud computing service, in a boost to the chip company that has filed for an initial public offering. Ampere aimed to create chips that are designed to be more energy efficient than traditional processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), both of which have subsequently announced offerings that compete with Ampere's chips. Oracle is a major investor in Ampere and was among the first cloud companies to adopt its chips in 2021. Ampere said last month that Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google Cloud unit would offer its newest chips, which feature computing cores custom designed by Ampere. Cloud computing companies are among the largest purchasers of chips, buying them en masse and renting them out to software developers.

Persons: Brendan McDermid, Ampere, Taiwan's TSMC, Renee James, Stephen Nellis, Jamie Freed Organizations: Oracle Corporation, New York Stock Exchange, REUTERS, Oracle, Intel, Arm Holdings, Devices, Google, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Ampere, San Francisco

☆ Ampere says flagship chip to be offered by Google Cloud
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Ampere Computing, a semiconductor firm headed by ex-Intel executives that is planning to list its shares publicly, said on Tuesday its flagship chips will be offered by Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google Cloud service. The deal is significant because cloud computing firms such as Google are some of the biggest buyers of data center chips. Jeff Wittich, Ampere's chief product officer, said more deals with other cloud providers will follow later this year, but he declined to name them. Ampere's chips use technology from SoftBank Group's (9984.T) Arm, which revealed earlier this month in initial public offering filings that it owns a 6.8% stake in Ampere. Ampere's chips aim to use less energy than rival chips from Intel while doing similar kinds of computing work.

Persons: Jeff Wittich, SoftBank Group's, Wittich, Stephen Nellis, Paul Simao Organizations: Ampere Computing, Intel, Alphabet's, Google, Oracle, Amazon.com, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

☆ Intel says new 'Sierra Forest' chip to more than double power efficiency
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

At a semiconductor technology conference held at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, Intel said its "Sierra Forest" chip will have 240% better performance per watt than its current generation of data center chip, the first time the company has disclosed such figures. That has pushed chip companies to focus on how to get more computing work done per chip. Ampere Computing, a startup founded by ex-Intel executives, was first to market with a chip focused on handling cloud computing work efficiently. Intel, which has lost market share to AMD and Ampere in data centers, said on Monday its "Sierra Forest" chip is on track to arrive next year. The company is for the first time splitting its data center chips into two categories: A "Granite Rapids" chip that will focus on performance but consume more power, and the more efficient "Sierra Forest" chip.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Singhal, Stephen Nellis, Bill Berkrot Organizations: REUTERS, Intel, Stanford University, Ampere Computing, Devices, AMD, Ampere, Thomson Locations: Silicon Valley, San Francisco

☆ Oracle extends its flagship database to Ampere's computing chips
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoMENLO PARK, California (Reuters) - Oracle on Wednesday said that it has modified its flagship database software to work on a new category of computing chip, starting with chips from Ampere Computing, a startup founded by former Intel executives. Oracle’s database software is used by major banks and corporations to track transactions. On Wednesday, Oracle said that the database will now also run on chips made based on a technological architecture from Arm Ltd, the same underlying technology that is in mobile phones. Ellison said Ampere’s chips are much more power efficient than offerings from its other two major chip suppliers, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia. By upgrading to Ampere, we’re able to take that room, double the compute and stay within the same power envelope,” Ellison said.

Persons: Brian Snyder, Ampere, Intel’s, “, We’ve, we’ve, Larry Ellison, Ellison, we’re, ” Ellison Organizations: REUTERS, MENLO, Oracle, Ampere Computing, Intel, Arm Ltd, Ampere, Amazon Web Services, Devices, Nvidia Locations: Burlington , Massachusetts, U.S, , California, Ampere

☆ Oracle spending 'billions' on Nvidia chips this year, Ellison says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File PhotoMENLO PARK, California, June 28 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) is spending "billions" of dollars on chips from Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) as it expands a cloud computing service targeting a new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, Oracle founder and Chairman Larry Ellison said on Wednesday. Oracle is also spending "billions" of dollars on Nvidia chips but even more on central processor units (CPUs) from Ampere Computing, a chip startup it has invested in, and Advanced Micro Device Inc (AMD.O), Ellison said at an Ampere event. "This year, Oracle will buy GPUs and CPUs from three companies," Ellison said. "We will buy GPUs from Nvidia, and we're buying billions of dollars of those. Other companies such as CoreWeave, which earlier this year raised a fresh $200 million of funding, are also targeting AI companies with cloud hardware that relies heavily on Nvidia chips.

Persons: Mike Blake, Larry Ellison, Ellison, Oracle, Stephen Nellis, Richard Chang Organizations: REUTERS, MENLO, Oracle Corp, Nvidia Corp, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp, Ampere Computing, Device, Nvidia, Ampere, AMD, Google, Thomson Locations: Los Angeles , California, U.S, , California, Menlo Park , California

☆ Ampere Computing launches its custom chips aimed at cloud computing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Stephen Nellis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 18 (Reuters) - Ampere Computing on Thursday released a new family of data center chips with technology it has custom-designed for cloud computing companies. Founded by former Intel Corp (INTC.O) president Renee James, Ampere has focused on courting cloud companies that buy thousands of chips at a time and in turn rent them out. Unlike Intel, Ampere uses a computing architecture from SoftBank Group Corp-owned (9984.T) Arm Ltd, which is also an investor in Ampere. The new Ampere chips will have as many as 192 of those cores where Intel chips tend to have only a few dozen. We are ever hopeful that the market will open and that it will open for growth companies," James said.

During a conference call with investors, the company projected that adjusted gross margins will climb above 40% in the second half, having hit historic lows in the first half of the year. Underscoring Intel's profitability slump in recent years, its first-quarter unadjusted gross margin fell to 34.2%, almost half of its multi-decade high of over 67% in 2010. The company forecast a further drop to an unadjusted gross margin of 33.2% for the second quarter. "While we understand investors may be disappointed in its 2Q23 gross margin outlook, we are confident that Intel's gross margin will recover in 2H23 as the burden of factory underutilization and new product start-up cost diminishes," said Kinngai Chan, analyst at Summit Insights Group. Intel said adjusted losses were 4 cents per share, above analysts' expectations of a 15 cent per share adjusted loss.

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