April 2 (Reuters) - Amazon Web Service (AWS)

has expanded its free credits program for startups to cover the

costs of using major AI models, the company told Reuters in an

interview, as it looks to boost the market share of its AI

platform Bedrock.

In a move to attract startup customers, Amazon ( AMZN ) now allows

its cloud credits to cover the use of models from other

providers including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere.

"This is another gift that we're making back to the startup

ecosystem, in exchange for what we hope is startups continue to

choose AWS as their first stop," said Howard Wright, vice

president and global head of startups at AWS.

The move followed Amazon's ( AMZN ) now-completed $4 billion

investment in Anthropic in convertible notes. As part of the

deal, Anthropic will use AWS as its primary cloud provider, and

Trainium and Inferentia chips to build and train its models.

Wright said Amazon's ( AMZN ) free credit will contribute to revenue

of Anthropic, one of the most popular models on Bedrock.

"That's part of the ecosystem building. We are unapologetic

about that," he said, adding that AWS offers a wide range of

choices and security to startups.

Amazon ( AMZN ) said it has offered over $6 billion in credits to

startups in the past decade.

In a partnership with Y Combinator, it's offering $500,000

in credits for the latest cohort launched in January, which can

be used on AI models and Amazon's ( AMZN ) chips. The cost of using AI,

based on usage, could pile up for startups.

Amazon ( AMZN ) is not alone among major cloud providers in providing

free credits to lure AI startups. Microsoft Azure gives

out credits that can be used for OpenAI's models, while Google's

cloud credit can be applied for over 130 models on Vertex AI.

Big tech's investments in AI startups have drawn scrutiny

from regulators, as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

(FTC)opened an inquiry on Microsoft's ( MSFT ) backing of OpenAI, as well

as Google and Amazon's ( AMZN ) investment in Anthropic.