Tag: amazon

Amazon to spend nearly $9 billion to expand cloud infra in Singapore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com plans to spend S$12 billion ($8.88 billion) over the next four years to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said on Tuesday.

The investment adds to the S$11.5 billion the company has already invested in the Asia Pacific Region till 2023, bringing its total planned spend to more than S$23 billion by 2028, AWS said in a statement.

Southeast Asia’s top leaders are scrambling for a bigger slice of the global tech pie, with Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore hosting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in December, and Apple CEO Tim Cook visiting Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia last month.

Recent investments in the region include Apple’s plan to invest over $250 million into its operations in Singapore.

AWS also announced a collaboration with the Singapore government, public sector organisations and enterprises to help accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI in Singapore, the statement said.

“AWS is doubling down on its cloud infrastructure investments in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad,” AWS Country Manager Priscilla Chong said.

The announcement at the AWS ASEAN Summit in Singapore marks Amazon’s latest move in its plan to build AWS infrastructure across Southeast Asia. The company had previously announced a $5 billion investment in Thailand and a $6 billion spend in Malaysia.

Amazon’s announcement comes days after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced cloud services investments worth $2.2 billion in Malaysia and $1.7 billion in Indonesia during a visit to the region.

With a young tech-savvy population of 670 million, Southeast Asia has seen increasing interest from technology giants.

Reuters reported in December that Malaysian conglomerate YTL’s utilities unit would partner with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure in a $4.3 billion investment deal.

On Monday, Malaysia’s trade minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said Google was also planning to invest in the country with an announcement expected “in the near future”, according to a report by the state news agency.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is keen to have Nvidia’s Huang visit again, with communications minister Budi Arie Setiadi saying last month that they had invited him.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s comments on unionisation violated labour law, rules judge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy made comments to the media in 2022 that violated federal labor law, a US National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday.

Remarks that Jassy made to reporters about the downsides of unionization told “employees that, if they selected a union, they would become less empowered and would find it harder to get things done quickly,” NLRB administrative law judge Brian Gee wrote.

Gee cited various comments Jassy made, including telling CNBC that making workplace improvements is “much slower” with a union and saying at a New York Times conference that employees without a union are “better off” because “it’s not bureaucratic.”

Gee also cited Jassy for telling the Bloomberg Technology Summit that in a union shop, “if you see something on the line that you think could be better for your team or you or your customers, you can’t just go to your manager and say, ‘Let’s change it.’”

While precedent establishes that a manager can make factually based predictions about “demonstrably probable consequences beyond his control,” Gee wrote that Jassy “offered no objective basis” for his assertions.

The judge said Amazon should be forced to post a notice at its US facilities informing employees of their rights and committing not to threaten them.

Amazon said it strongly disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal. “The decision reflects poorly on the state of free speech rights today, and we remain optimistic that we will be able to continue to engage in a reasonable discussion on these issues where all perspectives have an opportunity to be heard,” spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in an email.

The Amazon Labor Union, which brought the case to the NLRB, celebrated the ruling. “It sends a clear message that attempts to dissuade workers from exercising their right to organize and bargain collectively will not be tolerated,” the union’s attorney, Seth Goldstein, said in a text message.

US law allows companies to oppose and argue against unionization, but not to threaten to punish workers if they organize.

Rulings by NLRB judges can be appealed to labor board members in Washington, and from there into federal court. The agency lacks the authority to hold executives personally liable for violations or make companies pay punitive damages.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon’s Great Summer Sale and Flipkart’s Big Saving Days begin on May 2; Offers, discounts and more

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Get ready for some shopping as Amazon and Flipkart have announced their much-awaited e-commerce sale starting May 2, 2024. The sale is expected to offer a wide range of products — from electronics to fashion — at discounted prices, attracting millions of shoppers looking for deals and discounts.

Amazon Great Summer Sale: Dates

Amazon Great Summer Sale starts May 2 at noon for regular customers, while the sale will be live at midnight for the Prime members.

The e-commerce site is offering additional discounts via ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda Bank, and One Card offers during the sale period only.

The microsite offers 20% cashback (T&C apply) for the new customers. It also offers discounts on a wide range of products including, up to 40% off on smartphones, accessories and laptops, up to 75% off on headphones and electronics, up to 70% off on smartwatches, tablets, kitchenware and home appliances, up to 55% discount on air conditioners and refrigerators, no-cost EMIs on TVs, up to 65% off on top-rated TVs and 45% off on Alexa and Fire TV devices.

It will also host pocket-friendly stores, including products ranging from ₹99 and additional deals and discounts in the form of Amazon Coupons, Sample Mania, Cashback rewards, Pre-book, Buy More Save More and Amazon combos.

The e-commerce site will offer a 10% instant discount with ICICI Bank, BoB and OneCard credit and debit cards during the upcoming sale.

Flipkart Big Saving Days: Dates

The Flipkart Big Saving Days sale is scheduled to begin on May 2 for the Flipkart Plus and VIP members. For non-members, the sale begins on May 3 and ends on May 9. The sale price is live and customers can select products from today i.e., May 1, 2024.

During the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale, there will be a 10% instant discount for SBI Credit Card & Credit EMI transactions on select products, flat ₹500 off on a net cart value of ₹24,990 and above and flat ₹500 off on a net cart value of ₹49,990 and above.

According to the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale, the Apple iPhone 15 will be available at ₹63,999, the Samsung Galaxy S23 will be available at ₹44,999, Samsung Galaxy S22 will be available at ₹34,999 whereas the Apple iPhone 14 will be available at ₹₹54,999 during the event.

Smartphones from Motorola, Nothing, Vivo and others will also be available at discounted prices during the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro will cost ₹27,999, Moto Edge 40 Neo will be available at ₹19,999, Moto G64 to ₹12,999, and Moto G34 at ₹9,999.

The Poco M6 will cost at a lower price of ₹7,999 in the sale. The Poco X6 Pro, Poco M6 Pro, Vivo T3, and more will also be on sale.

Apart from this, the platform also mentioned the minimum transaction value and maximum discount per card offered to the customers during the sale.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon snuffs out investor hopes for dividend or share buybacks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc.’s growing cash pile had some investors betting the e-commerce and cloud computing giant would pay a dividend or buy back stock like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. did earlier this year.

It didn’t happen.

During a post-earnings call with analysts on Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky reiterated Amazon’s long-standing philosophy of re-investing in its business. He mentioned paying down debt and building the data centers required to reap the benefits of the boom in artificial intelligence.

“Our first priority is to invest in, to support the growth opportunities and long-term investments within our businesses, and generally we still have many opportunities for that capital to use that would generate meaningful returns,” Olsavsky said.

The board has long authorised Amazon to repurchase its own shares, but executives have done so only sporadically. Amazon in 2022 announced a program of up to $10 billion in buybacks, but the Seattle-based company hasn’t executed any since the second quarter of that year.

Meta and Alphabet both announced their first dividends this year. Amazon remains by far the largest company by market cap in the S&P 500 that hasn’t made a regular payout to investors.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Microsoft, Amazon AI deals get UK antitrust scrutiny

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Italy fines Amazon 10 million euros for alleged unfair commercial practices

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Italy’s antitrust authority has fined two subsidiaries of Amazon 10 million euros ($10.70 million) for alleged unfair commercial practices, the regulator said on Wednesday.

According to the watchdog, Amazon has “significantly restricted consumers freedom of choice” by automatically pre-setting the ‘Subscribe&Save’ option, for regular scheduled deliveries rather than one-off purchases, for a wide selection of products.

“The pre-ticking of recurring purchase induces one to periodically buy a product — even without the effective need — thus limiting one’s freedom of choice,” the antitrust said in a statement.

Amazon was not immediately available for comment.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Tesla plans to beat Google and Amazon as one of the biggest Nvidia customers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Austin, Texas-based Tesla may deploy 85,000 Nvidia H100 chips by the end of the year to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.

If Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk goes through with the plan, Tesla would be a bigger Nvidia customer than other tech giants like Amazon and Google.

Tesla currently has 35,000 H100 chips — the most powerful and super-expensive graphics processing units designed for AI applications — Musk revealed during the company’s first quarterly earnings for 2024.

These chips are crucial for Musk’s AI ambitions, which include advanced robots like the Optimus Bot, the Robotaxi, and a supercomputer called Dojo.

Who are the biggest buyers?

According to reports, Meta, the company behind social media giants like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is Nvidia’s biggest buyer.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January that the company plans to have about 3.5 lakh H100 chips by the end of 2024, taking Meta’s total stash to about 600,000 by year-end.

In its report, the World Economic Forum added that Nvidia could only make 5.5 lakh chips last year and thus, companies would have to wait till 2024 to be able to procure more.

The second in line is reportedly Microsoft, which ordered 1.5 lakh GPUs in 2023, according to technology research firm Omdia.

“The other 200,000 going to Oracle, Tencent, Google, and Amazon, which reportedly bought 50,000 each,” the report added.

Bloomberg suggests that Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon collectively account for nearly 40% of its revenue.

But there’s a growing movement among tech giants to develop chips in-house. Meta is joining rivals Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft, and Google in trying to reduce reliance on this costly chip. 

It won’t be a quick fix, though. So far, efforts have yet to dent the industry’s insatiable need for Nvidia’s AI accelerators.

The AI boom has helped turn Nvidia into the world’s third-most-valuable tech company, behind only Microsoft and Apple.

Nvidia’s sales to data centre operators totalled $47.5 billion in 2024, up from just $15 billion the year before. Analysts predict that the sum will more than double again in fiscal 2025.

What is the H100?

It’s a graphics processing unit (GPU) chip that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Nvidia does not disclose the pricing publicly, but the chips are listed on eBay’s e-commerce platform for as much as $57,000. 

Its capabilities are well-suited for training large language models (LLMs), enabling human-like text generation, language translation, and question-answering. 

Moreover, it supports the development of AI-powered systems such as self-driving cars and medical diagnosis tools. Due to these capabilities, the demand for the chip is high and supply low, leading to a shortage.

Also Read: NVIDIA Blackwell AI graphics engine to cost ₹25-40 lakh, says CEO Jensen Huang

(With inputs from agencies)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon offers free credits for startups to use AI models including Anthropic

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon Web Service (AWS) has expanded its free credits programme for startups to cover the costs of using major AI models, the company told Reuters in an interview, as it looks to boost the market share of its AI platform Bedrock.

In a move to attract startup customers, Amazon now allows its cloud credits to cover the use of models from other providers including Anthropic, Meta, Mistral AI, and Cohere.

“This is another gift that we’re making back to the startup ecosystem, in exchange for what we hope is startups continue to choose AWS as their first stop,” said Howard Wright, vice president and global head of startups at AWS.

The move followed Amazon’s now-completed $4 billion investment in Anthropic in convertible notes. As part of the deal, Anthropic will use AWS as its primary cloud provider, and Trainium and Inferentia chips to build and train its models.

Wright said Amazon’s free credit will contribute to the revenue of Anthropic, one of the most popular models on Bedrock.

“That’s part of the ecosystem building. We are unapologetic about that,” he said, adding that AWS offers a wide range of choices and security to startups.

Amazon said it has offered over $6 billion in credits to startups in the past decade.

In a partnership with Y Combinator, it’s offering $500,000 in credits for the latest cohort launched in January, which can be used on AI models and Amazon’s chips. The cost of using AI, based on usage, could pile up for startups.

Amazon is not alone among major cloud providers in providing free credits to lure AI startups. Microsoft Azure gives out credits that can be used for OpenAI’s models, while Google’s cloud credit can be applied for over 130 models on Vertex AI.

Big tech’s investments in AI startups have drawn scrutiny from regulators, as the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)opened an inquiry on Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI, as well as Google and Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon’s senior employees may not get a cash pay raise this year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday its senior employees, whose compensation includes more stock-related awards than cash, may not receive a cash pay raise this year.

“For this year’s compensation cycle, we are prioritizing cash base pay increases for employees whose compensation is weighted more heavily in base pay as opposed to stock,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Some of these top employees’ compensation, however, will meaningfully exceed that of last year due to growth in the e-commerce giant’s stock price over the past year, the spokesperson added.

The stock surged 81% in 2023, and climbed over 18% so far this year, as of last close.

Despite the strong performance, Amazon began the year by shedding jobs across several divisions. Aiming to slash costs, the company had cut more than 27,000 jobs and trimmed stock awards last year.

The pay raise matter was first reported by Fortune.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon loses court fight to suspend European Union tech rules’ ad clause

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon on Wednesday lost its fight to suspend a requirement regarding its online advertising under EU tech rules after Europe’s top court backed EU regulators, saying EU interests outweigh the US online retailer’s material interests.

Under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which kicked in last year, Amazon was designated as a very large online platform subject to tough rules to tackle illegal and harmful content on its platform.

The company subsequently challenged a DSA requirement to make publicly available a repository containing detailed information on its online advertising and also asked for an interim measure until the court rules on the case.

A lower tribunal in September agreed to its request for an interim measure to suspend the contested obligation, which prompted the European Commission to turn to Europe’s top court.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) set aside the suspension order and dismissed Aamzon’s application for an interim measure.

The judge said that Amazon’s argument that the obligation unlawfully limits its fundamental rights to respect private life and the freedom to conduct a business was not irrelevant.

He also said that without a suspension, it was likely that Amazon would suffer serious and irreparable harm before any judgment annulling the Commission’s decision.

However, he said a suspension could have a detrimental impact on the objectives of the DSA.

“Suspension would lead to a delay, potentially for several years, in the full achievement of the objectives of the Regulation on a Single Market for Digital Services and therefore potentially allow an online environment threatening fundamental rights to persist or develop,” the judge said.

“The interests defended by the EU legislature prevail, in the present case, over Amazon’s material interests, with the result that the balancing of interests weighs in favour of rejecting the request for suspension.”

Amazon said: “We are disappointed with this decision, and maintain that Amazon doesn’t fit the description of a ‘Very Large Online Platform’ (VLOP) under the DSA, and should not be designated as such.”

Also Read: Amazon makes largest three-decade external investment, adds $2.75 billion to AI startup Anthropic

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow