Amazon Cranks Up Its AI Euphoria

Amazon’s artificial intelligence growth is a sight to behold. No, the company didn’t report how much money it’s making from AI, and it probably won’t anytime soon. We’re talking about the expanded use of AI buzzwords in its earnings release. References to Bedrock and CodeWhisperer—two generative AI products from Amazon—rose 67% and 200% in the third-quarter release compared to the second quarter, while mentions of Anthropic—the hot AI startup Amazon recently invested in—quadrupled. 

We’re teasing! But also not: Amazon is working very, very hard to show how on the ball it is when it comes to the generative AI craze, in part to counter the perception that it has lost a step in AI to its biggest rival in cloud computing, Microsoft. On a call with investors, in fact, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy kept the AI-gasm going as he rattled off the ways Alexa, stores and other Amazon businesses are using the technology. Amazon’s third-quarter results show why. Its AWS cloud unit grew only 12% year over year, the same rate of growth as in the second quarter and down dramatically from 28% in the third quarter of last year. Compare that to the 29% growth Microsoft reported on Tuesday for its Azure cloud unit—which it credited to demand for its AI services—and you can see why Amazon might be a bit concerned.