Oracle has agreed to prepay US$104.1 million ($162 million) for processor chips made by startup Ampere Computing, according to Oracle’s proxy statement.
Oracle also invested US$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 and Advanced Micro Devices, which use X86.
Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings.
The idea behind the investment in Ampere – and its chip purchases – is to give Oracle’s cloud an advantage over rivals.
Amazon.com makes its own server chips that compete with Ampere, and Google makes its own artificial intelligence processors.
Ampere declined to comment. Oracle did not return a request for comment.