Uber Expands AWS Contract, Begins Trial of In-House Graviton and Trainium3 Chips
In April 2026, it was announced that Uber would expand its cloud contract with AWS (Amazon Web Services) and begin trials of Amazon's in-house designed Graviton chips and the new Trainium3 AI chips. Uber had only signed major cloud contracts with Oracle and Google just two years prior. This move highlights a new competitive landscape where "clouds with in-house chips" have an advantage in acquiring customers, rather than being a long-term threat to Nvidia. This article organizes the background and implications for investors.
1. Uber's Cloud Strategy: Shifting Focus from Oracle/Google to AWS
1-1. The 2023 Major Contract
Uber has historically operated its own data centers, but in February 2023, it signed major multi-year cloud contracts with both Oracle and Google, declaring a migration away from its own infrastructure. A blog post from December 2024 officially reaffirmed this policy.
"In February 2023, Uber began migrating from on-premises data centers to the cloud. Using OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) and Google Cloud Platform, we are tackling the dual challenges of migrating large-scale workloads and introducing ARM-based compute instances."
It is particularly noteworthy that they emphasized the use of Ampere ARM chips on Oracle Cloud.
1-2. AWS's "Interception"
With this announcement, Uber has decided to run even more parts of its ride-sharing functionality on AWS chips. They are adopting two types of chips designed in-house by Amazon.
Graviton: Low-power, ARM-based server CPU. For general-purpose workloads
Trainium3: AI-specific chip to compete with Nvidia's GPUs. Trials have just begun
This is a scenario where AWS has snatched Uber, one of Oracle's star customers, using its in-house designed chips as a weapon. As the original article points out, this is less of a threat to Nvidia and more of a "thumbing of the nose" by AWS at Oracle and Google.
2. The Complex History of Ampere: Silicon Valley's Crony Network
2-1. A Company Founded by Intel's No. 2
The ARM chips that Uber previously used on Oracle Cloud were manufactured by Ampere Computing. The company's history is a prime example of how Silicon Valley connections are intertwined.
Ampere was founded by Renee James, who missed out on a promotion to become Intel CEO. James leveraged her position as an investor at private equity giant Carlyle and her role as an Oracle board member to raise funds. As a result, Oracle held about one-third of the company, and James had to relinquish her position as an independent director at Oracle.
Notably, James was also one of the directors who approved Oracle's $9.3 billion acquisition of NetSuite (2016). In that NetSuite acquisition, a shareholder lawsuit was filed claiming overpayment because Larry Ellison was a major shareholder of NetSuite (it was eventually dismissed).
2-2. Acquisition by SoftBank and Oracle's Policy Shift
In December 2025, SoftBank, a competitor of Ampere, acquired the company. Oracle sold its stake and recorded a pre-tax profit of $2.7 billion. James resigned from the Oracle board at the end of 2024 and has also left Ampere.
Oracle's Larry Ellison stated the reason for selling Ampere as follows:
"I have come to believe that designing our own chips for data centers is no longer a competitive advantage. We chose to buy chips and sign a major contract with Nvidia."
This shift in strategy occurred while Oracle was fully committed to building data centers for OpenAI's Stargate project. Notably, Oracle, SoftBank, and Nvidia are all part of a circular trading network centered around OpenAI.
3. AWS's proprietary chip strategy—growing into a "multi-billion dollar business"
3-1. The rapid growth of Trainium
AWS's AI chip strategy is rapidly gaining presence. In December 2024, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated the following regarding Trainium.
"Trainium has already become a multi-billion dollar business"
Uber has become one of the major companies, following Anthropic, OpenAI, and Apple, to expand or sign new contracts with AWS due to their custom-designed AI chips.
3-2. The advantage of a "cloud with its own chips"
What this series of moves reveals is that the axis of cloud competition is shifting not just from infrastructure costs and service scope, but toward "what kind of chips can you provide."
While Oracle decided that "chip design is no longer a competitive advantage," AWS is using those very self-designed chips to steal Oracle's customers. Uber's contract migration is visualizing the consequences of these contrasting strategic decisions in real time.