Annapurna Labs#History

Annapurna Labs, named after the Annapurna Massif in the Himalayas, was co-founded in 2011{{cite news |last=Clark |first=Greg |last2=Bensinger |first2=Dan |date=2016-01-06 |title=Amazon Enters Semiconductor Business With Its Own Branded Chips |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-enters-semiconductor-business-with-its-own-branded-chips-1452124921 |work=The Wall Street Journal |url-access=limited |access-date=2024-05-21 |archive-date=2023-10-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021184546/https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-enters-semiconductor-business-with-its-own-branded-chips-1452124921 |url-status=live }} by Bilic "Billy" Hrvoje, a Bosnian Jewish refugee, Nafea Bshara, an Arab Israeli citizen,{{Cite web | title=Annapurna Labs: AWS' Secret Sauce | access-date= 2019-12-09 | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2019/03/10/how-an-acquisition-made-by-amazon-in-2016-became-companys-secret-sauce/}}{{Cite web|title=If you can dream it, you can do it| access-date=2019-12-09 | author=Rebecca Kopans | url=https://www.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FOCUS-FEBRUARY-2018.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209133813/https://www.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/FOCUS-FEBRUARY-2018.pdf|archive-date=2019-12-09}} and Ronen Boneh with investments from the independent investors Avigdor Willenz, Manuel Alba, Andy Bechtolsheim, the venture capital firm Walden International, Arm Holdings,{{Cite web|title=AWS and ARM: Working together to re-invent the cloud|author=Kristen Lisa|access-date=2019-12-09|url=https://www.arm.com/company/news/2018/11/arm-and-aws-working-together-to-reinvent-the-cloud|archive-date=2019-12-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209141838/https://www.arm.com/company/news/2018/11/arm-and-aws-working-together-to-reinvent-the-cloud|url-status=live}} and TSMC. Board members include Avigdor Willenz, Manuel Alba, and Lip-Bu Tan, the CEO of Walden International and executive chairman of Cadence Design Systems.{{Cite web

| title = Semiconductors fueling Cloud!

| work = semiwiki.com

| access-date = 2015-01-24

| url = https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/f2/semiconductors-fueling-cloud-5383.html

| archive-date = 2016-03-03

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222338/https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/f2/semiconductors-fueling-cloud-5383.html

| url-status = dead

}}

The first product launched under the AWS umbrella was the AWS Nitro hardware and supporting hypervisor in November 2017.{{cite journal |last1=Liguori |first1=A |title=The Nitro Project–Next Generation AWS Infrastructure |journal=Hot Chips: A Symposium on High Performance Chips |date=2018 |url=https://old.hotchips.org/hc31/HC31_T1_AWS_Nitro_Hot_Chips_20190818-2.pdf |publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |access-date=13 October 2023 |archive-date=18 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220518004810/https://old.hotchips.org/hc31/HC31_T1_AWS_Nitro_Hot_Chips_20190818-2.pdf |url-status=live }} Following on from Nitro, Annapurna developed general-purpose CPUs under the Graviton family and machine-learning ASICs under the Trainium and Inferentia brands.{{cite news |last1=Tarasov |first1=Katie |title=How Amazon is racing to catch Microsoft and Google in generative A.I. with custom AWS chips |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/12/amazon-is-racing-to-catch-up-in-generative-ai-with-custom-aws-chips.html |access-date=13 October 2023 |work=CNBC |date=12 August 2023 |language=en |archive-date=13 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231013052156/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/12/amazon-is-racing-to-catch-up-in-generative-ai-with-custom-aws-chips.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Bass |first=Dina |date=2023-02-21 |title=Amazon's Cloud Unit Partners With Startup Hugging Face as AI Deals Heat Up |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-21/amazon-s-aws-joins-with-ai-startup-hugging-face-as-chatgpt-competition-heats-up |work=Bloomberg News |access-date=2024-05-21 |archive-date=2023-05-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522030130/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-21/amazon-s-aws-joins-with-ai-startup-hugging-face-as-chatgpt-competition-heats-up |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Nellis |first=Stephen |date=2023-02-21 |title=Amazon Web Services pairs with Hugging Face to target AI developers |url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-web-services-pairs-with-hugging-face-target-ai-developers-2023-02-21/ |work=Reuters |access-date=2024-05-21 |archive-date=2023-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530091325/https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-web-services-pairs-with-hugging-face-target-ai-developers-2023-02-21/ |url-status=live }}

In November 2024 Annapurna announced their second generation Trainium 2 intended for training AI models. Based on their internal testing, Amazon are claiming "a 4-times performance increase between Trainium 1 and Trainium 2".{{cite web |author1=Michael Acton |author2=Tim Bradshaw |title=Amazon ready to use its own AI chips, reduce its dependence on Nvidia |url=https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/11/amazon-ready-to-use-its-own-ai-chips-reduce-its-dependence-on-nvidia/ |website=Ars Technica |access-date=12 November 2024}}

{{Cite web

| title = The Stealthy Lab Cooking Up Amazon’s Secret Sauce

| last = Cohen | first = Ben

| work = Wall Street Journal

| date = 2025-05-10

| access-date = 2025-05-10

| url = https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-ai-chips-supercomputer-aws-annapurna-trainium-a943be71

| quote =

}}

• AWS Graviton - an ARM-based CPU developed by Annapurna Labs for exclusive use by Amazon Web Services.

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• [https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/take-a-look-inside-the-lab-where-aws-makes-custom-chips Official web site]

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Category:ARM architecture

Category:Fabless semiconductor companies

Category:Amazon (company) acquisitions

Category:Semiconductor companies of Israel

Category:Electronics companies established in 2011

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