Oracle Diversifies Compute Strategy With Google TPU Integration
AI-generated image · US National Wire
The cloud provider is expanding its hardware portfolio to include Google's Tensor Processing Units alongside continued Nvidia investments.
Oracle is moving to diversify the hardware powering its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) by integrating Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as The Register first reported. According to the outlet, Oracle will become the first hyperscale cloud platform outside of Google's own services to offer these chips.
Scheduled to become available within OCI starting in 2027, the capacity for Google TPUs will increase over several years. OCI President Mahesh Thiagarajan stated that the move provides customers with flexibility to select infrastructure based on the performance, throughput, and economics of specific AI workloads.
The shift comes as Oracle attempts to reduce its heavy reliance on Nvidia. The company has previously entered deals worth tens of billions of dollars with the GPU maker to equip its datacenters, including a project in Texas involving Nvidia and OpenAI that The Register describes as reportedly troubled.
Despite the pivot toward Google's silicon, Oracle is not abandoning its Nvidia partnership. The company announced the general availability of Nvidia Vera CPUs and Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 systems, as well as plans to introduce HGX Rubin NVL8 systems. Thiagarajan noted that combining these GPUs and CPUs with Oracle Acceleron networking and AI-optimized datacenters helps customers scale efficiently.
Beyond hardware, Oracle is deepening its ties with OpenAI. The company unveiled two new products: Oracle AI Security Mesh, which utilizes OpenAI cybersecurity models to identify and fix vulnerabilities, and Oracle AI Workspace, which integrates OpenAI frontier models with Oracle applications and enterprise data via ChatGPT plugins.
Additionally, Oracle announced a partnership with Snowflake to bring the Snowflake AI data cloud to OCI as a native service. Under this agreement, Oracle will manage pricing, billing, and discounts, and customers will be able to use Oracle Universal Credits for the service.
These strategic shifts follow a strong financial period for Oracle; the company reported record earnings for the quarter ending August 31, with revenue increasing 30 percent year over year.