- In a proxy filing, Oracle disclosed that it owned a $40 million stake in Ampere Computing, which is valued at under 20% of the company
Software giant Oracle recently disclosed it owned a $40 million stake in Ampere Computing, which is valued at less than 20% of the company according to a proxy filing discovered by CNBC. Ampere is a data center processor company that was founded by CEO Renee J. James. Some of Ampere’s other investors include Arm and The Carlyle Group.
James founded Ampere in October 2017. And James is also an operating executive at The Carlyle Group, Oracle, and Citi. Before that, James was an executive at Intel between 1988 and 2016. At Intel, James worked closely with CEO and co-founder Andy Grove.
Ampere Computing is a developer of microprocessors for cloud and edge servers with a 64-bit Arm server processor architecture. These microprocessors enable customers to accelerate the delivery of memory-intensive applications like artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, and databases in the cloud. And Ampere’s eMAG family of products deliver high memory throughput and low TCO. Currently, Samsung and Intel are the dominant players in the microchip market.
When Arm invested in Ampere, the president of the IP Products Group at the company Rene Haas pointed out that it underscored Arm’s commitment to accelerate the ecosystem and availability “of diverse Arm-based silicon solutions for an infrastructure market long deprived of choice and flexibility.”
With Oracle’s investment, the software giant appointed one director to Ampere’s board. And Oracle also paid about $419,000 to Ampere in fiscal 2019 for “hardware used for development and testing purposes.”
