Oracle now also offers its database software on chips from Ampere. The relationship with Intel turns out to be non-exclusive.

In a press release, Oracle announces an expansion of the database offering. The database management software is now also certified to run on ARM processors. That’s good news for Ampere Computing, which now has a place in Oracle’s data centers with its Altra chips.

“This is a big step. We moved to a new architecture and a new vendor,” said Oracle poster boy Larry Ellison. He praises Ampere Computing, saying their chip technology is much more efficient than Intel and AMD’s chips.

Breakup with Intel?

Intel gets another attack from Ellison. He just didn’t call the x86 architecture old-fashioned. Oracle will therefore mainly invest in chips from Ampere and AMD in the coming years; Intel isn’t even mentioned anymore. It takes a good relationship therapist to save the marriage.

Intel has been the absolute ruler of data centers for decades and has long enjoyed exclusivity with Oracle Database as well. The fact that this is about to change shows once again that Intel’s once unassailable market position is crumbling. In addition to AMD, Intel now also has to think seriously about amps. The fact that Ampere was founded by former employees and is also headquartered in Santa Clara will hurt even more.

Oracle also has a serious boon for Nvidia and will buy “billions of dollars” worth of GPUs from manufacturer Dixit Ellison. With these investments, Oracle aims to expand its AI offering and increase competition with AWS, Microsoft and Google.