Amazon is exploring an $8 billion deal to transfer advanced Nvidia chips from its balance sheet into a special-purpose vehicle, leasing the hardware back while shifting capital costs away from its core financials amid surging infrastructure spending.
The tech giant has held discussions with investors in recent weeks to gauge interest in the proposed off-balance-sheet arrangement. Under the structure, thousands of advanced hardware units currently installed across more than a dozen data centers in five United States states—including Virginia and Nevada—would be transferred into a newly established special-purpose vehicle.
How the Asset-Light Financing Structure Works
To fund the acquisition of the high-end hardware, the special-purpose vehicle plans to issue debt to external investors. Amazon intends to retain a minority equity stake of up to 10% in the entity. By utilizing this model, Amazon can remove expensive semiconductor assets from its direct accounting while continuing to utilize the technology through recurring lease agreements.
Market observers note that if the special-purpose vehicle secures an investment-grade credit rating, the arrangement could attract long-term institutional backers such as pension funds and insurance companies. Debt-backed arrangements utilizing graphics processing units have already seen broader adoption across the industry through firms like CoreWeave, as companies race to finance massive artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Cloud Providers Increase Spending to Ease Capacity Constraints
The financing discussions coincide with a historic ramp-up in capital spending by cloud service providers seeking to alleviate severe computing capacity constraints.
AWS Growth and Nvidia Hardware Deployment Plans
To support these workloads, AWS outlined plans in August to deploy two million additional Nvidia graphics processing units—spanning Blackwell Ultra, Rubin, and Rubin Ultra architectures—through 2027 and 2028. Alongside these third-party chips, the division continues developing its proprietary silicon, including Trainium and Graviton accelerators, as part of a diversified hardware strategy.
Amazon Shifts Assets to Maintain Financial Flexibility
Industry estimates suggest that advanced data center processors require replacement roughly every five years to keep pace with rapid technological advancements. By shifting a portion of these high-cost assets off its books, Amazon aims to maintain the necessary computing power while preserving financial flexibility across its capital-intensive cloud operations.