Oracle Corp. said it owns 29% of start-up Ampere Computing LLC and can exercise future investment options that would give it control of the chipmaker.
Oracle said in addition to equity in the start-up, it invested US$600 million in the fiscal year ended May 31 in convertible debt issued by Ampere after US$400 million in such debt in fiscal 2023. The debt matures in June 2026 and if exercised with options through January 2027 to acquire additional equity, Oracle would “obtain control of Ampere and consolidate its results with our results of operations.”
The disclosure came Wednesday in a regulatory filling in which Oracle also announced that Ampere founder and chief executive officer Renee James won’t run for reelection as a director at the software company’s annual meeting Nov. 14. Vishal Sikka, founder and CEO of Vianai Systems Inc., also is leaving the board, reducing its ranks to 13 members from 15.
A representative for Ampere said it wouldn’t comment on another company’s filing, while Oracle didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ampere is exploring a potential sale and is no longer pursuing an initial public offering in the near term, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week. The company has pioneered the market for server processors made using the Arm Holdings Plc technology that dominates in smartphones.
Ampere has announced that some of the largest providers of cloud computing — including Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google — are using its processors. But like all chip companies vying for orders from the biggest buyers of data centre components, it’s competing with internal semiconductor development efforts as those businesses look to make themselves less reliant on outside technology.
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Oracle said it has reduced purchases of Ampere chips. The company placed a $104.1 million prepayment order in fiscal 2023 for Ampere processors. During that period, it bought $4.7 million directly and $43.2 million indirectly, according to the filing. In fiscal 2024, it bought US$3 million directly and none in the market. Oracle said it had about US$101.1 million remaining under the prepayment.
As for its ownership in Ampere, Oracle reported that “the total carrying value of our investments in Ampere, after accounting for losses under the equity method of accounting, was US$1.5 billion as of May 31.”
(Updates with Ampere’s response in fourth paragraph.)
