Leer en español: Amazon quiere vender $8 mil millones en chips de Nvidia y arrendarlos de vuelta
Amazon has held talks with investors about moving about $8 billion of Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips, the ones it is installing in its US data centres, into a separate company and then leasing them back, the Financial Times reported on 2 October (via Reuters). Amazon and Nvidia did not comment, and Amazon has not confirmed the deal.
How it works, in plain words
Think of selling your house to an investor and renting it back. You keep living there, you get cash today, and the house (and the mortgage) is no longer on your books. Here, the separate company, a special-purpose vehicle (SPV), would own the chips. According to the FT, Amazon would offer investors an equity stake of up to 10% and the SPV would raise the rest as debt. Amazon keeps using the chips and pays rent.
Why people are worried
Amazon is not alone. Meta sold an 80% stake in its Hyperion data-centre campus to an investment firm (SiliconANGLE). A Wall Street Journal analysis in August counted about $3 trillion of off-balance-sheet AI commitments across big tech, and said Morgan Stanley accounting analysts had warned that these deals make it “increasingly difficult” for investors to see how much debt these companies really carry. Supporters say it is a normal, cheaper way to fund expensive hardware. Critics say it makes the AI boom look less leveraged than it is.
Why founders should care
Every AI startup runs on this compute. If the giants fund their chips with outside debt, that debt has to be repaid from AI revenue, the same revenue your startup is chasing. It is also a reminder that “who owns the asset” and “who carries the risk” are not always the same thing, in big tech or in your own cap table. Start with cap table basics.
Sources
- Reuters, “Amazon seeks to offload $8 billion of Nvidia chips to investors, FT reports”, 2 Oct 2026: thestar.com.my
- SiliconANGLE, Maria Deutscher, 2 Oct 2026: siliconangle.com
- Wall Street Journal analysis (17 Aug 2026) as summarised by InvestingLive: investinglive.com
Written by Fabian Cisneros. Educational only — not investment, legal or tax advice. See the full disclaimer.
VC Simulator
Could you have made that call?
Behind every headline like this one, founders and investors sat at a table and negotiated. The VC Simulator puts you in that seat: negotiate a term sheet with an investor who pushes back, run the numbers, and learn how venture capital really works. If you want to get into this world, start here.
Leave a comment