Amazon is embarking on the largest capital spending programme in its history, seeking to regain momentum against AI rivals by expanding data centres, developing chips and building models.
The group is undergoing a strategic shake-up amid fears its cloud arm, AWS, is losing ground to competitors in securing corporate AI contracts, according to more than a dozen current and former senior employees.
Chief executive Andy Jassy last week announced Amazon’s capital expenditure would rise to $200bn this year, exceeding that of Google and Microsoft, with the outlay focused on computing infrastructure.
In December, he consolidated the group’s chip, model and advanced research teams under a single leadership structure, a move intended to align its AI plans. The Amazon chief has also cut costs, including jobs — eliminating some 30,000 of about 350,000 corporate roles.
“We have deep experience understanding demand signals in the AWS business and then turning that capacity into a strong…
https://www.ft.com/content/905df663-8c47-4e88-b6ff-24dd4bd46290
