In an interview with Reuters, Amazon Web Services (AWS) (AMZN.O) said that, in an effort to increase the market share of its AI platform Bedrock, it has enlarged its free credits program for startups to cover the expenses of employing major AI models.
Amazon is now allowing its cloud credits to cover the use of models from other providers, such as Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere, in an effort to draw in startup clients.
Vice president and worldwide head of startups at AWS Howard Wright said, “This is another gift that we’re making back to the startup ecosystem, in exchange for what we hope is startups continuing to choose AWS as their first stop.”
This action was taken in response to Amazon’s $4 billion convertible note investment in Anthropic, which is now finalized. Anthropic will employ Trainium and Inferentia chips to develop and train its models, and AWS as its main cloud provider as part of the agreement.
Wright stated that Anthropic, one of the most well-liked models on Bedrock, will make money thanks to Amazon’s free credit.
That’s a component of creating an ecosystem. We have no regrets about that,” he declared, adding that AWS provides companies with a plethora of options as well as security.
Over the last ten years, Amazon claims to have given over $6 billion in credits to entrepreneurs.
It is providing $500,000 in credits through a partnership with Y Combinator for the most recent cohort that was introduced in January. These credits can be utilized on Amazon’s chips and AI models. Depending on utilization, the cost of adopting AI could get expensive for startups.
Among the big cloud providers, Amazon is not the only one that offers free credits to entice AI firms. While Google’s cloud credit can be applied to over 130 models on Vertex AI, Microsoft Azure (MSFT.O) offers credits that may be used for OpenAI’s models.
Regulators are keeping an eye on big tech’s investments in AI companies; the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun an investigation into Microsoft’s support of OpenAI and Google and Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.
