Proactive Investors - Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN, ETR:AMZ) is positioned to benefit from a stellar stock market debut by Astera Labs, the AI-linked tech firm, on Wednesday.
The seller of data centre connectivity chips for AI and cloud firms, Astera Labs soared 72% on its first day of trading, closing at US$62.03 per share with a market capitalisation of US$9.5 billion.
Astera Labs works with AI giants like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) as well as Amazon.
However, Amazon may have seen the potential of the company before other investors did.
In 2022, the e-commerce giant agreed to a deal with Astera that gave it warrants to purchase some 1.5 million shares at US$20.34 each.
One year later, this deal was rejigged to allow Amazon to secure an additional 830,000 shares.
As of the end of 2023, Amazon held more than 232,500 shares in Astera, meaning, when including its warrants, it holds a stake worth US$144 million – as per Wednesday’s closing price.
Amazon is required to purchase up to US$650 million of Astera stock in the coming years if it wants to vest the rest of its shares, according to the two firms’ agreement.