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Why Amazon May Sell $8 Billion in Nvidia Chips and Lease Them Back
Amazon is reportedly discussing a deal that would move about $8 billion in Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips to an outside investor backed vehicle and lease them back. The talks come as Amazon expects about $220 billion in 2026 cash capital spending and AWS grows quickly, even as free cash flow faces pressure from invest...
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- Amazon is reportedly discussing a deal that would move about $8 billion in Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips to an outside investor backed vehicle and lease them back.
- The talks come as Amazon expects about $220 billion in 2026 cash capital spending and AWS grows quickly, even as free cash flow faces pressure from investment.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: As of October 11, 2026, why is Amazon reportedly considering an $8 billion deal to place Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips in an outside-investor. Article summary: As of October 11, 2026, Amazon was reportedly exploring the $8 billion chip sale-and-leaseback to strengthen its balance sheet and release capital for its AI expansion without giving up use of the hardware; it was a prop. Topic tags: general, news, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts w
Amazon is reportedly exploring a way to finance part of its AI infrastructure without giving up use of the hardware: transfer about $8 billion of Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips to a special-purpose vehicle backed by outside investors, then lease the chips back. The proposal could free up capital and shift chip ownership away from Amazon, but reporting describes discussions—not a completed transaction. 1
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How the proposed chip financing would work
A special-purpose vehicle, or SPV, would hold the chips. Outside investors would provide financing, and Amazon would lease the hardware from the vehicle for continued use in its data centers. Reuters reported the discussions as a potential way for Amazon to strengthen its balance sheet. 1
The basic financing trade-off is straightforward: Amazon could receive capital from transferring ownership rather than keeping the full cost of the chips tied up in assets, while taking on lease payments to keep using them. That may ease the immediate funding burden, but it does not make the chips free or remove the obligation to pay for their use.
The phrase “off balance sheet” also needs care. A change in legal ownership does not, by itself, establish how a transaction or lease would appear in Amazon’s accounts. The reporting available describes a proposed structure, not final terms or a completed accounting treatment. 1
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Why Amazon is looking for financing as it expands AI
Amazon raised its projected 2026 cash capital expenditures from about $200 billion to $220 billion in July, citing higher memory costs. CEO Andy Jassy said the company still expected to lack enough computing capacity to meet demand in 2026 and that the shortfall could continue into 2027. 20
At the same time, AWS reported second-quarter revenue of $42.2 billion, up 36.7% year over year. Its operating income was $16.6 billion, and its backlog—the value of customer commitments for future services—was reported at $496 billion. 18
Those figures point to the tension behind the proposal: Amazon is investing heavily to add capacity while AWS demand and infrastructure needs grow. But backlog is not cash already received, and revenue growth does not eliminate the timing gap between spending on data centers and earning revenue from them. Amazon reported trailing-12-month free cash flow of negative $7.6 billion, while management warned of cash-flow headwinds until new data centers come online. 19
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What the deal would—and would not—solve
If completed on the reported outline, the arrangement could give Amazon access to capital tied up in chip ownership while allowing AWS to keep using the hardware. It would be a financing choice, not evidence that Amazon is scaling back its AI plans. 1
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It would also shift rather than erase costs: Amazon would owe lease payments, and the final effect on its balance sheet would depend on the deal’s terms and accounting treatment. The key question is whether the financing helps bridge the gap between upfront infrastructure spending and future cloud revenue without creating obligations that outweigh that benefit.
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Amazon is reportedly discussing a deal that would move about $8 billion in Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips to an outside investor backed vehicle and lease them back.
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Amazon is reportedly discussing a deal that would move about $8 billion in Nvidia Grace Blackwell chips to an outside investor backed vehicle and lease them back. The talks come as Amazon expects about $220 billion in 2026 cash capital spending and AWS grows quickly, even as free cash flow faces pressure from investment.
Sources
reuters.comAmazon seeks to offload $8 billion of Nvidia chips to investors, FT reports
tokenpost.comAmazon Explores $8 Billion Financing Deal for Nvidia Chips | TokenPost
finance.yahoo.comAmazon Raised Its 2026 Capex Guide to $220 Billion. ...
theglobeandmail.comAmazon (AMZN) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript