Amazon knows how to build big. The AI boom is testing just how big it can go.
Source: Business Insider ·
Amazon's $220 billion AI buildout is draining cash as power shortages, costly Nvidia servers, and construction challenges pile up.
From the source
Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of infrastructure services at Amazon Web ServicesBASTIEN INZAURRALDE/AFP via Getty ImagesAmazon is on an unprecedented spending spree to build more AI data center capacity than anyone else.The company has extensive experience, yet even it's struggling to bring capacity online fast enough.Internal documents show Amazon getting bilions of dollars of Nvidia GPUs before they can be deployed.At an internal staff meeting in September, AWS CFO John Felton had a joke for Prasad Kalyanaraman, the executive overseeing much of Amazon's AI infrastructure expansion."You've taken us free cash flow negative as a company, so congratulations," Felton said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Business Insider.The remark was lighthearted. But it captured a stunning reversal.Just two years ago, Wall Street was debating what Amazon would do with its growing cash hoard. Now, cash flow has evaporated as Amazon embarks on its biggest bet ever, spending…