Cloud Tech - GeekWire

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

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

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 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

Amazon expands Bedrock with new AI model marketplace, a day after unveiling its own ‘Nova’

LAS VEGAS — Unveiling Amazon’s homegrown Nova artificial intelligence models yesterday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made a point of saying the company was still committed to offering a broad choice… Read More

‘An easy button to get off Windows’: Amazon’s new AI moves Microsoft apps to Linux

LAS VEGAS — Amazon has a new use for AI: dumping Microsoft Windows. At the Amazon Web Services re:Invent conference Tuesday morning, the company announced a series of new features… Read More

Amazon hires former Microsoft and SAP exec Julia White as new AWS marketing chief

Julia White, a longtime Microsoft executive who spent the past four years at SAP, has been named the chief marketing officer and vice president at Amazon Web Services. Raejeanne Skillern,… Read More

AWS tops $10B in quarterly operating profits as Jassy cites ‘reacceleration’ of cloud business

Amazon’s cloud business isn’t done growing yet. Amazon Web Services posted $10.4 billion in operating income in the third quarter, up 50% from a year ago, surpassing $10 billion for… Read More

Amazon Web Services VP of AI, Matt Wood, is leaving the company

Matt Wood, the Amazon Web Services vice president who was a longtime champion of the cloud giant’s machine learning and artificial intelligence initiatives, is leaving the company after 15 years.… Read More

With new Amazon Web Services partnership, Oracle’s cloud database trade-off is complete

Oracle announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services on Monday afternoon that will further integrate its database offerings and cloud infrastructure with the Seattle tech giant’s cloud platform. It… Read More

AWS exec explains how AI agents are driving a radical shift in the world of coding

In an era where AI is reshaping industries at breakneck speed, Doug Seven finds himself at the forefront of a technology that’s changing the way developers approach their work. As… Read More

Software firm sues Amazon in contract dispute over Emirates VR experience at Dubai Airshow

A VR demo at the Emirates booth during the 2023 Dubai Airshow is the subject of a lawsuit filed by a software development firm against Amazon Web Services. Surreal Holdings… Read More

Amazon Web Services AI leader on the future of large language models and autonomous agents

The old saying in tech is that companies date their computing vendor, and marry their database vendor. So are AI models the equivalent of a one-night stand? Swami Sivasubramanian, the… Read More

CrowdStrike outage hits 8.5M Windows devices; Microsoft collaborates with Amazon and Google

The flawed update from cybersecurity software company CrowdStrike has affected 8.5 million Windows devices, Microsoft said in a post Saturday detailing its ongoing response to the extraordinary global IT outage.… Read More

Podcast

Cybersecurity in the age of AI: A conversation with Amazon Chief Security Officer Steve Schmidt

This week on the GeekWire Podcast: It was a big week for cybersecurity for Seattle’s cloud giants, albeit in very different ways for each. Microsoft President Brad Smith was in… Read More

Congressional hearing pits Microsoft’s actions vs. words in public grilling over security failures

Updated below with details from hearing. Microsoft President Brad Smith previewed his approach in prepared written testimony for his appearance Thursday before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security for… Read More

Amazon’s departing cloud chief: Gen AI can be ‘one of the biggest opportunities AWS has ever seen’

Three years after returning to Amazon Web Services to lead the cloud giant through one of the most challenging and prosperous periods in its history, Adam Selipsky fielded questions this… Read More

Adam Selipsky, the exit interview: Amazon Web Services CEO on AI, competition, and the future

Adam Selipsky spoke with GeekWire this week at Amazon Web Services headquarters in Seattle in an interview prior to his departure as AWS CEO. His final day in the role… Read More

How Amazon’s new cloud chief Matt Garman will approach the big challenges ahead

Three executives from Amazon Web Services were meeting with a top CIA tech leader, trying to come up with a creative solution to an issue that was facing the U.S.… Read More

Microsoft will make Khan Academy’s Khanmigo AI tool free to U.S. teachers in cloud shift

Online education platform Khan Academy is shifting a portion of its cloud workload to Microsoft Azure under a partnership announced Tuesday morning. Microsoft says it will donate access to its… Read More

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky steps down; senior exec Matt Garman named AWS CEO

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down from the role, three years after returning to the company to lead the cloud giant, according to an internal memo from… Read More

Capital spending soars in the cloud as Microsoft, Google, and others bet big on AI demand

Analysts, investors, and the media are suddenly focused intensely on capital expenditures by tech giants including Microsoft, Meta, Google, and others to size up the industry’s bet on the cloud… Read More

Amazon updates AWS Bedrock with new capability to import custom AI models

Amazon Web Services is releasing new capabilities for its Bedrock artificial intelligence service, including the ability for customers to import their own custom AI models to run alongside models from… Read More

Podcast

GeekWire Podcast: Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on the rapid progress of AI, and its impact on society

Early versions of generative AI were “like a dancing bear,” says Werner Vogels, the Amazon chief technology officer. “We’re all amazed that this bear can dance,” he explains. “We don’t… Read More

Amazon Web Services cuts hundreds of jobs in sales, training, and physical stores tech group

Amazon Web Services will cut several hundred jobs in its Sales, Marketing, and Global Services organization, and a few hundred jobs on its Physical Stores Technology team, executives in the… Read More

Data protection giant Veeam moves HQ to Seattle region, tops $1.5B in annual recurring revenue

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Credit the cloud, and the talent. The cricket is just a bonus. Veeam Software, the top company by market share in data protection and ransomware recovery, has… Read More

Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader on AI, hiring, and the new realities of tech spending

Business software company Smartsheet surpassed $1 billion in annualized recurring revenue in the fourth quarter, within the timeframe established by the company during its first analyst day as a public… Read More