Amazon Opens $11B Indiana AI Data Center Deploying 1 Million Custom Chips

Amazon has significantly expanded its AI infrastructure with the opening of an $11 billion data center complex called Project Rainier in New Carlisle, Indiana, designed primarily to support AI startup Anthropic's models. The facility, now operational with nearly 500,000 of Amazon's custom Trainium2 chips and planned to grow to over one million by the end of 2025, highlights Amazon's strategic move to reduce reliance on Nvidia and improve cost efficiency. Project Rainier is one of the world's largest AI computing clusters, reflecting Amazon's rapid deployment capabilities and its deep partnership with Anthropic, in which it has invested $8 billion. Alongside this, AWS announced a $5 billion investment in South Korea to build new AI data centers near Seoul by 2031, part of a broader $40 billion investment across 14 APEC countries to bolster AI infrastructure globally. These investments position Amazon as a major player in the growing AI chip and data center market, competing with other tech giants by developing custom chips and expanding AI cloud services. The expansions underscore the intense race among tech companies to build foundational AI infrastructure amid surging demand for computing power in AI applications.