Amazon CEO Andy Jassy (Getty Images)

Amazon is the newest discount Chinese retailer

Amazon took a page out of Temu and Shein’s book: cheap shipping from China to US consumers.

11/14/24 4:02PM

On Wednesday, Amazon launched its new discount storefront, Amazon Haul, to compete with Chinese low-cost e-retailers like Temu and Shein. According to Amazon, all items are priced below $20, with “majority priced $10 and under, and some items as low as $1.”

(I don’t know if I would buy $1 eyelash curlers or oven gloves from Amazon Haul, but I digress.)

As my colleagues David and Hyunsoo noted earlier today, Amazon still dwarfs Temu and Shein’s US shipment volume (Amazon has a 41% share in the US e-commerce market compared to 1% each for the other two) and web traffic (22 billion hits vs. under 1 billion for both combined in 2024). However, thanks to a tax and tariff loophole known as “de minimis,” which makes imported goods under $800 duty-free, DTC Chinese e-commerce companies have exploded since 2016. A congressional investigation from last year showed that in 2022, 30% of all de minimis imports came from Temu and Shein, and 60% came from China.

Ironically, the key to Amazon’s sub-$20 service is simply copying Temu and Shein’s strategy of shipping directly from China. Amazon noted that the typical delivery time for items on its “Amazon Haul” store is “one to two weeks.” The reason for that is because Amazon will be shipping directly from Guangdong, China, according to The Information, and it will charge sellers “significantly lower fulfillment fees” for items sold through its Haul store than it does for domestically shipped items.

While the Biden administration is currently reviewing proposals to end the de minimis loophole, a move that would impact Amazon as much as Shein and Temu, it looks like, for now, the retail giant is taking advantage of one of the Chinese e-commerce companies’ best trade practice.

Max Knoblauch

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Tom Jones4h

Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO and founder, was also an early Anthropic investor

A chess prodigy and an actual a knight of the realm in the UK, it’s perhaps no surprise that Demis Hassabis has made some strategic moves about his exposure to AI upside. According to people familiar with the matter, the influential AI architect became an angel investor in Anthropic, currently behind many of the leading AI models, per Arena AI leaderboards.

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

Google, which bought DeepMind, the company that Hassabis cofounded and heads to this day, for a reported ~$400 million in 2014, is also a key Anthropic investor. The tech giant reportedly plans to invest up to $40 billion in the AI company as part of the mutually beneficial relationship the pair have forged, with reports that Anthropic has committed to spending $200 billion in the other direction on Google’s cloud services over the next five years.

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

In addition to his financial support for Anthropic, Hassabis has also invested in a range of AI startups launched by colleagues, such as Inflection AI, a company set up by DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman (who is now CEO of Microsoft AI), as well as efforts from other collaborators, like David Silver’s Ineffable Intelligence.

Hassabis also emerged as a recurring figure on the fringes of the recent Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial, cropping up repeatedly in testimonies and court documents and appearing to live, as The Verge put it, “rent-free” in Musk’s head.

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis emerges as early Anthropic investor

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, per the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

I’m playing all sides, so I always come out on top

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Max Knoblauch21h

Jury rules against Musk in lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman

Jurors in Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI found the defendants not liable on all claims on Monday.

In a unanimous verdict reached after less than two hours of deliberation, the Oakland jury found that Musk had waited too long to bring his case forward, exceeding the statute of limitations.

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

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Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

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