In August 2026, AWS made available its M8i and M8i-flex instance types powered by custom Intel Xeon 6 CPUs exclusively available on AWS. These instances offer up to 15% better price-performance and 2.5 times more memory bandwidth than prior Intel-based generations, aiming to accelerate workloads such as PostgreSQL databases, web applications, and AI recommendation models. The M8i-flex models suit general-purpose uses with common sizes up to 16xlarge, while M8i instances target high CPU utilization and large-scale applications, including configurations certified for SAP.
Performance claims include up to 20% better overall processing compared with M7i series, with specific workload speedups up to 60% for web applications. The introduction of a 96xlarge bare metal option broadens capacity for demanding enterprise environments. These enhancements are vendor-claimed; independent benchmarking results were not provided in the source material.
Source & further reading
Amazon EC2 M8i and M8i-flex instances are now available in Canada West (Calgary) region ↗Source published 2026-08-25. This report was prepared with AI assistance from the linked primary-source material. Claims and limitations should be checked against the original announcement or research.