Amazon will offer startups free credits for using third-party AI models

Cloud provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded its programme of providing free credits to startups so they can use the funds to pay for work with artificial intelligence models from third-party developers including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI and Cohere.

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The move is aimed at attracting more startups to the AWS ecosystem and increasing the Bedrock platform's market share for building and applying AI solutions. According to AWS VP Howard Wright, it's "a gift to the startup ecosystem in exchange for choosing AWS as their primary cloud platform."

The new initiative follows Amazon's recent $4bn investment in Anthropic, creator of one of the most popular models in Bedrock. As part of the deal, Anthropic is using AWS as its main cloud provider and Amazon's specialised chips to develop its models.

Wright said the free AWS credits will help Anthropic's revenue growth, and pointed to the wide range of choices and security that Amazon offers startup partners.

AWS has provided more than $6 billion in loans to startups over the past decade, and through its partnership with accelerator Y Combinator, the company is providing $500,000 in loans to the latest stream of startups that can be used for Amazon's AI models and chips, among other things.

In addition to Amazon, rival cloud platforms Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud offer free credits to attract AI startups. However, the tech giants' investments in promising AI companies have caught the attention of antitrust regulators, who have launched an investigation into the deals.

Source: Reuters