AMSTERDAM, Feb 20 - STMicroelectronics on

Thursday said it is launching a new computer chip targeting the

booming market for AI data centre equipment, which it has

developed in cooperation with Amazon's ( AMZN ) web services arm (AWS).

With top U.S. software firms planning to spend $500 billion on

AI infrastructure as part of the Stargate venture, demand is

growing not only for the specialised computing chips made by

Nvidia but also chips used in memory, power and communications

applications.

ST is targeting the communications market with a photonics

chip - one that uses light rather than electricity - to increase

speed and reduce power consumption in converters known as

transceivers, of which hundreds of thousands are needed in an

advanced AI data centre.

"We have signed a collaboration agreement with AWS, which

has been intimately involved in the development ... and which

will deploy this technology in their infrastructure as it

reaches production stage later this year," said Vincent Fraisse,

general manager at the company's radio and communications chip

division, at a presentation for journalists.

"We also have an ongoing collaboration with the leading

provider of optical solutions, the market leader in pluggable

optical transceivers, for them to use (the chip) in their next

generation ... transceivers," he added, without disclosing the

name of the company.

Top transceiver makers include Coherent and Cisco of the

United States and Innolight and Accelink of China.

According to research firm LightCounting, the market for

such devices was $7 billion in 2024 and it will quadruple to $24

billion by 2030.

ST will mass produce the chips at its factory in Crolles,

France.