Amazon (AMZN) News

AI meets YQ: We asked Amazon Nova to analyze — and grade — Andy Jassy’s annual letters

In his 2024 Letter to Shareholders, released Thursday morning, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy introduces a new concept: Amazon’s “Why Culture,” or “YQ,” as he calls it. That’s his phrase for… Read More

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s 2024 compensation tops $40M, driven by last year’s stock surge

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s total compensation reached $40.1 million in 2024, due largely to strong gains in the company’s stock price that boosted the value of the shares he vested… Read More

Amazon enters real-time AI voice race with Nova Sonic, a unified voice model that senses emotion

What happens when the AI senses the frustration or joy in your voice? A new speech-to-speech AI model from Amazon, called Nova Sonic, unifies speech recognition and generation to deliver… Read More

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff rejoins Amazon in new VP role

Jamie Siminoff has returned to Amazon as a vice president of product overseeing the company’s home security camera arm and related businesses. Siminoff, the Ring founder and longtime CEO, left… Read More

Report: Amazon put in a bid to acquire TikTok ahead of U.S. ban

Move over, Microsoft. Amazon is the latest Seattle-area tech giant being tied to a potential acquisition of TikTok. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Amazon put in an offer… Read More

Shopify arrives in Amazon’s backyard with new Bellevue office

There’s another tech giant in town. Canadian e-commerce behemoth Shopify has inked a deal for office space in Bellevue, Wash., becoming the latest tech company to tap into the Seattle… Read More

Analysis: Google-Wiz deal sparks questions about cloud security strategy at AWS and Microsoft

Editor’s note: This analysis is written by Christopher Budd, a tech industry veteran who previously worked at the Microsoft Security Response Center. Earlier this month, Google announced plans to acquire… Read More

Podcast

GeekWire Podcast: Inside Amazon’s attempt to reinvent Alexa for the new era of AI

[Update, Monday, March 31: Amazon’s Alexa+ Early Access page is now live, and the company confirmed that the new Alexa is starting to roll out “to a small number of… Read More

Amazon testing new AI search experience that suggests products based on prompts

Amazon is using generative AI for a new feature called “Interests” that turns natural language queries into product recommendations — and updates shoppers when new items match their prompt. Previously:… Read More

Amazon ramps up its fight against fakes with help from AI and law enforcement

Amazon says it seized more than 15 million counterfeit products in 2024 — more than double the prior year — as part of a growing effort to intercept fake goods… Read More

Podcast

What Alexa’s AI upgrade means for Amazon’s business and Alexa users

For many years, Amazon has been trying to put its Alexa voice assistant at the center of the smart home. But right now, Alexa in its current state can seem… Read More

Amazon and FTC set to square off in ‘Economics Day’ hearing in Seattle federal court

Amazon and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will get a chance to educate the federal judge in the FTC’s antitrust case against the tech giant on the economic principles behind… Read More

How will the new China tariffs impact Amazon’s e-commerce business?

Amazon and its wide network of third-party retail partners could be disrupted by President Trump’s additional tariffs on goods from China. Just how much, though, is unclear. The new 10%… Read More

Internal memo: Amazon One Medical CEO Trent Green leaving to lead publicly traded NRC Health

Trent Green, the CEO of Amazon’s primary healthcare company, One Medical, is leaving to take a job as CEO of publicly traded National Research Corp., which does business as NRC… Read More

The two questions that Kara Swisher would ask Jeff Bezos about The Washington Post

“Why do you want to own this paper anymore? And do you love it as much as I do?” That’s what journalist and entrepreneur Kara Swisher would ask Amazon founder… Read More

Oscars host Conan O’Brien delivers jokes about Amazon and Jeff Bezos

Academy Awards host Conan O’Brien took a couple shots at Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos during the opening monologue of Sunday night’s ceremony. O’Brien, the late-night TV vet and first-time… Read More

Amazon commits $100M to Bellevue to ‘accelerate’ production of affordable housing

Amazon announced that it is giving $100 million to support affordable housing efforts in Bellevue, Wash. The contribution is part of Amazon’s $3.6 billion Housing Equity Fund for affordable housing in… Read More

Amazon’s new quantum chip joins race to enable next era of computing

Amazon unveiled a prototype quantum processor with a novel architecture that promises to significantly reduce the resources required to unlock a future era in which ultra-powerful computers solve some of… Read More

Illustration: D-Orbit ION satellite carrier in orbit

Amazon Web Services focuses on optimizing artificial intelligence in space

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are turning into requirements for space operations, and Amazon Web Services is optimizing its products to reflect that view, according to the former Air Force… Read More

Amazon’s new Alexa+ uses generative AI to personalize conversations and automate tasks

Amazon unveiled Alexa+, a new service that integrates generative AI natively into the company’s longtime voice assistant — promising free-flowing conversations, plus the ability to learn user preferences over time… Read More

Seattle grocery space with ties to Amazon to become new H Mart

The physical grocery landscape in Seattle is taking another turn in a space once connected to Amazon. A former New Seasons Market in the Ballard neighborhood, which closed in 2019,… Read More

Amazon MGM Studios strikes deal for 007, takes over creative control of James Bond film franchise

Will James Bond finally return to action? The prospect for a new film in the long-running spy thriller series increased dramatically on Thursday with the announcement that Amazon MGM Studios… Read More

Amazon to retire Chime meeting service, shift to Zoom internally as it rolls out Microsoft 365 apps

There will be no more apologies about Chime from Amazon employees to outsiders joining their meetings. That ritual of logging on to an Amazon Chime meeting will become a thing… Read More

Initial election results show support for Seattle social housing tax opposed by Amazon, Microsoft

Seattle voters are showing support for a new tax on big business that would fund a social housing developer. More than 57% of voters said “yes” to the proposed tax,… Read More

Podcast

Podcast: Amazon, AI, and the cloud — a reality check, with Corey Quinn of ‘Last Week in AWS’

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sounded more bullish than ever about the potential for artificial intelligence on the company’s earnings call this week. “We think virtually every application that we know… Read More

Amazon cuts workforce diversity reference from annual filing amid Trump-led backlash against DEI

Amazon scrubbed a reference to workforce diversity from its annual 10-K report this morning, reflecting a broader corporate retreat from diversity and inclusion practices amid changing political winds. Under a… Read More

Amazon on pace for $100B+ in yearly capex; Jassy expects cost efficiencies to drive AI demand

Amazon reported $26.3 billion in capital expenditures in the fourth quarter, and the company plans to keep spending at that pace in 2025, which would put the total at more… Read More

Amazon’s quarterly profits soar to a record $20 billion, but cloud growth comes up short

Amazon beat Wall Street’s overall expectations with $187.8 billion in net sales, up 10%, and came in well ahead on the bottom line, with earnings of $1.86 per share, vs.… Read More

Amazon earnings preview: AWS cloud growth, AI demand, trade wars among key issues to watch

Amazon’s cloud growth rate has been increasing steadily in recent quarters, and investors are looking for the trend to continue when the company reports earnings Thursday for the December quarter… Read More

Podcast

Podcast: DeepSeek reality check; Amazon, Bezos, and the Post; lost in the Microsoft garage

This week on the GeekWire Podcast, we dive deep into DeepSeek, the AI project shaking up the tech world, to better understand the underlying technical advances and the long-term implications… Read More