Amazon Expands Free Credits Program to Cover AI Models for Startups

Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to expand the free credits program for startups to now also include the costs for the use of popular AI models. During a Reuters interview, the company confirmed such an expansion of the program, where the added incentives are targeting an increased market share of its AI platform Bedrock.

Free credits for AI models

The detailed information shows that AWS cloud credits will enable the use of models from many providers such as Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere. This goes well with the plan by Amazon to attract more startups so they can choose AWS as their preferred cloud provider.

Such a move by Amazon to extend the free credits program would come after the most recent $4 billion investment in Anthropic through convertible notes. As a result of such investment, Anthropic, a popular model on Bedrock, would make use of AWS as its main cloud provider and train its models through the use of Trainium and Inferentia chips.

Supporting startup ecosystem

Howard Wright, Vice-President and Global Head of Startups at AWS said that free credits from Amazon would add up to Anthropic revenues and with its positioning within the ecosystem building. He underlined the focus of AWS on ensuring security through diversity for the startups.

More than six billion dollars have been doled out in credits to startups over the decade by the company, pointing at likely more investment that is needed to be done continually to foster innovation.

With Y Combinator, Amazon can offer $500,000 worth of credits to the latest cohort as part of the deal whereby they take part in offering access to AI models and Amazon’s chips, which might be quite instrumental for startups.

Competitive landscape

 In this, Amazon is not alone, trying to woo AI startups with free credits. The competitors, including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, have similar deals, where Microsoft gives credits applying to models from OpenAI, while Google Cloud gives over 130 model credits on Vertex AI. 

The money from those behemoths into AI startups, though, is drawing regulatory attention. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is already sniffing around Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI, while Google and Amazon both invest in Anthropic. This underscores the regulatory challenges surrounding big tech’s involvement in the AI startup ecosystem.

With the offering of these free credits to AI models for startups, Amazon is extending the strategy to offer more value to AI companies and startups. The AWS way, as it supports and provides incentives to startups, will offer more fuel to innovation and growth in the startup ecosystem. On the other side, the regulatory scrutiny on leading tech firms also reflects both complexity and adversity when such companies engage with AI startups. That has not deterred, however, competitive dynamics within the market for cloud computing, driven by attractive free credits and access to state-of-the-art AI models.

Original Story From https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/amazon-offers-free-credits-startups-use-ai-models-including-anthropic-4237056