Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) massive artificial intelligence push took a major step forward as its Project Rainier supercomputer, powered by nearly 500,000 Trainium2 chips, officially went live.
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The new Rainier system marks a turning point for Amazon Web Services, positioning it to capture a larger share of booming AI training and inference demand that could add billions in revenue growth through 2026.
Bank of America Securities analyst Justin Post maintained a Buy rating on Amazon with a price forecast of $272.
Also Read: Amazon Poised For Big 2026 Breakout, Says Analyst
Post said Amazon's Project Rainier, one of the world's largest AI training computers, is now operational.
The system, built with nearly 500,000 Trainium2 chips across multiple U.S. data centers, connects tens of thousands of UltraServers using NeuronLinks to minimize latency. Amazon stated that its AI partner, Anthropic, will gain over five times the compute power it had before, with its Claude model expected to run on more than one million Trainium2 chips by the end of 2025. The analyst noted that while the launch arrived about a month later than expected, it confirms that Amazon's large-scale capacity ramp for AI workloads has begun.
He added that the new Rainier capacity could significantly strengthen AWS through 2026.
Analysts expect AWS revenue to rise 19% year over year in 2026, slightly faster than 2025's 18%. Post believes that Anthropic's growing AI demand could materially boost AWS results, estimating up to $6 billion in incremental revenue in 2026, potentially adding 4 percentage points to overall growth.
The analyst described Amazon's investment in proprietary technology — including Trainium chips and Nova models as a critical strategic move to differentiate AWS in the competitive AI market.
AWS CEO Matt Garman has said these chips can outperform general-purpose alternatives, and Post noted that Amazon's in-house approach could reduce training and inference costs while lifting AWS margins. Still, he acknowledged that investor skepticism remains over whether demand for Trainium-based systems will expand beyond Anthropic.
Post expects Amazon's upcoming earnings call and its re:Invent conference to highlight the benefits of the Rainier rollout and possibly announce Trainium3, further closing the performance gap with other AI chipmakers. The analyst said customer adoption over the next 18 months will be pivotal in determining whether Trainium becomes a major platform in AI infrastructure or faces limitations in broader appeal.
AMZN Price Action: Amazon.com shares were down 2.28% at $225.05 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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