Amazon is designing its own chips for the gadgets it considers most important, the company's top hardware executive has said in a new interview.
Speaking to Arjun Kharpal of CNBC, Amazon's SVP of Devices Panos Panay said the company is focused on building custom silicon for its "critical" consumer devices, naming the Echo smart speakers and Fire TV products. According to CNBC, Panay also discussed Amazon's broader experiments with AI-enabled gadgets.
Several outlets picked up the interview with the same core message. The News International reported that Amazon is building more devices powered by in-house AI chips. According to a summary from 富途牛牛 (Futu), Panay signaled that Amazon will accelerate development of its own edge AI chips as it prepares for a device "chip replacement." MarketScreener framed it plainly as Amazon developing in-house AI chips for consumer devices.
Benzinga characterized the move as Amazon "quietly" building its own AI chips, describing it as a bigger bet that reaches beyond Qualcomm, a longtime supplier of mobile and device chips.
The term "edge AI" refers to running artificial intelligence directly on a device, rather than sending everything to distant data centers. Designing that silicon in-house lets a company tune performance and cost to its own products.
Why it matters: if Amazon shifts its everyday gadgets to chips it designs itself, it gains more control over how AI features run at home and leans less on outside suppliers, a shift that could reshape who profits from the next wave of smart devices.