(Reuters) -Oracle Corp agreed to prepay $104.1 million for processor chips made by startup Ampere Computing, according to Oracle (NYSE:ORCL)'s proxy statement filed on Friday.
Oracle also invested $400 million in Ampere through a convertible note in its fiscal 2023, the proxy said.
Ampere builds custom server chips based on Arm technology that compete with designs produced by Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), which use X86. Oracle has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Ampere since it was founded, according to filings.
The idea behind the investment in Ampere – and its chip purchases - is to give Oracle's cloud an advantage over rivals. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) makes its own server chips that compete with Ampere, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) makes its own artificial intelligence processors.
Ampere declined to comment. Oracle did not return a request for comment.