Oracle has the option to purchase Ampere chips after investing over $100 million in the chipmaker

ORACLE announced that it has a 29% ownership in the startup Ampere Computing as well as that it has the ability to carry out further Oracle investment choices that would enable it to acquire the business.

Oracle reported that it invested US$600 million in convertible notes issued by Ampere in the fiscal year that concluded on May 31 in addition to its equity in the startup. In the previous fiscal year, it had invested US$400 million in similar debt. Oracle would "obtain control of Ampere and consolidate its results with our results of operations" if the options to purchase further equity, which have a maturity date of June 2026, were exercised. The options are valid until January 2027.

In addition to the disclosure, Ampere founder and CEO Renee James declared in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, September 25, that he will not seek reelection as a director at the software company's annual meeting on November 14. The board will now consist of 13 members instead of 15, as Vishal Sikka, the founder and chief executive officer of Vianai Systems, is departing from the position.

Requests for response from chipmaker Ampere and Oracle representatives were not immediately answered. According to people familiar with the situation, Ampere is no more pursuing an IPO in the near future and is instead looking at a possible sale, Bloomberg reported last week. Ampere has declared that their CPUs are being used by some of the biggest cloud computing companies, such as Microsoft and Google, a division of Alphabet.

Oracle announced a decrease in Ampere chip purchases. The company placed a prepaid order for Ampere processors totaling US$104.1 million in the fiscal year 2023. According to the document, it made purchases totaling US$43.2 million indirectly and US$4.7 million directly during that time. In the fiscal year 2024, it made direct acquisitions of US$3 million and made no market purchases. According to Oracle, it still owed roughly US$101.1 million from the prepayment.