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Why Amazon is now spending more on data centers than on e-commerce warehouses

AI is where the growth is.

7/1/24 8:51AM

Amazon, the company known quickly shipping goods to consumers from its online marketplace, is now spending more money on data centers than e-commerce warehouses, according to The Wall Street Journal. Why? In short: AI.

ISO its next “pillar” of growth

For years the company has been searching for its next “pillar of growth” to add to its first three pillars: its online marketplace, Amazon Prime membership program, and cloud-computing business Amazon Web Services. It’s hoping artificial intelligence will be a big part of that growth.

Build your own instead of competing for space

Access to data centers is a key battleground for those hoping to compete in AI, because the tech requires so much computing power.

According to a new report by real estate services company CBRE, “Large corporations face increasing difficulty securing data center capacity.” An astonishing rate of data center space is being leased before it’s even built.

So Amazon is spending even more on its own data centers in order to compete. Amazon plans to add at least 216 new data-center buildings in the next several years, according to WSJ reporting.

Everyone else is doing it

Amazon is clearly not the only one looking to AI for growth. A number of major tech companies are investing record sums on capital expenditure thanks to AI. (Companies in general can’t stop talking about AI and the topic reeks of FOMO)

Jon Keegan12h

Anthropic projections for 2028: Up to $70 billion in revenue, could be profitable by 2027

Anthropic’s Claude API business is doing so well with enterprise customers, the company is upping its revenue forecasts significantly. According to a report from The Information, the company’s robust corporate sales have caused it to revise its most optimistic forecast up to $70 billion in sales by 2028.

Anthropic estimates its API business will be double that of OpenAI’s API sales. OpenAI is currently burning through much more money per month than Anthropic, and reportedly expects to spend as much as $115 billion through 2029, while Anthropic is forecasting that it could be cash positive by 2027, per the report.

Anthropic Projects $70 Billion in Revenue, $17 Billion in Cash Flow in 2028

Rani Molla12h

Amazon, which is developing AI shopping agents, doesn’t want Perplexity’s AI shopping agents on its site

Amazon has sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity AI, demanding that it stop letting its AI browser agent, Comet, make online purchases for users, Bloomberg reports.

Amazon, which is developing its own AI shopping agents and is having “conversations” with builders of third-party agents, accused the AI startup of “committing computer fraud by failing to disclose when its AI agent is shopping on a user’s behalf, in violation of Amazon’s terms of service.”

Perplexity, in response, said Amazon is attempting to “eliminate user rights” in order to sell more ads.

Amazon Demands Perplexity Stop AI Agent From Making Purchases

Perplexity, in response, said Amazon is attempting to “eliminate user rights” in order to sell more ads.

Jon Keegan13h

Apple to challenge Google Chromebooks with low-cost Mac laptop, Bloomberg reports

Apple is designing a new sub-$1,000 Mac laptop aimed at the education market, Bloomberg reports.

Google’s low-cost Chromebooks currently dominate the K-12 education market, and Apple’s reentry into the education market that it once owned could disrupt the sector’s status quo.

According to the report, Apple plans on using the custom mobile chips it currently uses in iPhones to power the more affordable devices.

Apple’s recent earnings demonstrated that iPhone sales have been steady, and the tech giant is looking to find new areas of growth, like services. A low-cost Mac could be popular with consumers, in addition to education buyers.

Apple Prepares to Enter Low-Cost Laptop Market for First Time

According to the report, Apple plans on using the custom mobile chips it currently uses in iPhones to power the more affordable devices.

Jon Keegan13h

Getty Images suffers partial defeat in UK lawsuit against Stability AI

Stability AI, the creator of image generation tool Stable Diffusion, largely defended itself from a copyright violation lawsuit filed by Getty Images, which alleged the company illegally trained its AI models on Getty’s image library.

Lacking strong enough evidence, Getty dropped the part of the case alleging illegal training mid-trial, according to Reuters reporting.

Responding to the decision, Getty said in a press release:

“Today’s ruling confirms that Stable Diffusion’s inclusion of Getty Images’ trademarks in AI‑generated outputs infringed those trademarks. ... The ruling delivered another key finding; that, wherever the training and development did take place, Getty Images’ copyright‑protected works were used to train Stable Diffusion.”

Stability AI still faces a lawsuit from Getty in US courts, which remains ongoing.

A number of high-profile copyright cases are still working their way through the courts, as copyright holders seek to win strong protections for their works that were used to train AI models from a number of Big Tech companies.

Getty Images largely loses landmark UK lawsuit over AI image generator