Amazon Expands Free Credit Programs For Start-ups, Including Big Artificial Intelligence Models

JAKARTA - Amazon Web Service (AWS) has expanded its free credit program for start-ups to cover the cost of using major artificial intelligence (AI) models. This is them, while looking to increase the market share of its AI platform, Bedrock.

In a move to attract start-up subscribers, Amazon now allows its cloud credit to cover up the use of models from other providers including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere.

"This is another gift we are giving back to the start-up ecosystem, in return for our hope that start-ups will continue to elect AWS as their first choice," said Howard Wright, vice president and head global start-up at AWS.

The move follows Amazon's USD 4 billion (IDR 62 trillion) investment in Anthropic in its conversion note. As part of the deal, Anthropic will use AWS as its main cloud provider, and Trainium and Inferentia chips to build and train its models.

Wright said Amazon's free credit would contribute to Anthropic's revenue, one of the most popular models on Bedrock.

"It's part of building an ecosystem. We don't regret that," he said. He added that AWS offers various choices and security to start-ups.

Amazon says it has offered more than $6 billion in credit to start-ups in the past decade.

In partnership with Y Combinator, they offer $ 500,000 in credit for the latest cohort launched in January, which can be used for Amazon AI models and chips. The cost of using AI, based on usage, can accumulate for start-ups.

Amazon is not the only major cloud provider to provide free credit for AI start-ups. Microsoft Azure also provides credit that can be used for the OpenAI model, while Google's cloud credit can be used for more than 130 models on Vertex AI.

Big investments in AI start-ups have attracted the attention of regulators, as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) opened an investigation into Microsoft's support for OpenAI, as well as Google and Amazon's investments in Anthropic.