Amazon CEO defends billions in AI spend
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter.
Amazon plans to keep quenching AI's insatiable thirst for compute and capital in order to reap the business opportunities ahead, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a Thursday letter to shareholders.
"We continue to believe AI is a once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know," Jassy said in the letter. "The demand is unlike anything we've seen before and our customers, shareholders, and business will be well-served by our investing aggressively now."
Citing skyrocketing demand for AWS services and the potential customer experience gains from AI deployment, Jassy said the company has invested to deliver AI fundamentals to the market. This effort includes the Amazon Nova models released in December and homegrown computing chips like Trainium2, which will help lower compute costs, Jassy said.
The leading hyperscalers — AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud — have pledged to invest billions in capital expenditures to meet AI demand, citing infrastructure buildouts as a key driver of spend.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company plans to deploy $100 billion in capital expenditures this year alone.
"Similar to 2024, the majority of the spend will be to support the growing need for technology infrastructure," said Olsavsky in February, during the Q4 2024 earnings call. "This primarily relates to AWS, including to support demand for our AI services as well as tech infrastructure to support our North America and international segments."
In addition to standing up more compute capacity, Amazon has worked to deploy foundational models, expand access to specialized training and create its own line of AI-optimized chips. Amazon plans to unveil its latest chipset, Trainium3, later this year.
Chips are the biggest driver of costs for AI services, according to Jassy.
"Most AI to date has been built on one chip provider," Jassy said. "It's pricey. Trainium should help, as our new Trainium2 chips offer 30-40% better price-performance than the current GPU-powered compute instances generally available today."
As providers increase their capital investments geared at boosting compute, governments have also laid out plans to expand domestic access to AI-ready infrastructure.
In January, the U.S. unveiled a $500 billion plan to grow the national data center footprint with support from the private sector. On Wednesday, the European Union unveiled its own action plan to increase compute capacity and specialized skills in the region.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TechCrunch
32 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Meta reportedly in talks to invest billions of dollars in Scale AI
In Brief Meta is discussing a multi-billion dollar investment in Scale AI, according to Bloomberg. In fact, the deal value could reportedly exceed $10 billion, making it the largest external AI investment for the Facebook parent company and one of the largest funding events ever for a private company. Scale AI (whose CEO Alexandr Wang is pictured above) provides data labeling services to companies such as Microsoft and OpenAI to help them train their AI models. Much of that labeling work is done by contractors — in fact, the Department of Labor recently dropped its investigation into whether the company was misclassifying and underpaying employees. According to Bloomberg, the company saw $870 million in revenue last year and expects to bring in $2 billion this year. Meta was already an investor in Scale AI's $1 billion Series F, which valued the company at $13.8 billion. Scale AI also built Defense Llama, a large language model designed for military use, on top of Meta's Llama 3.
CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
Snag the Roku Ultra 4K Streaming Device for a Near Record Low Price
Whether you're ready to binge some new shows or you're focused on baseball season, these days the options for streaming to your TV seem nearly endless. Roku is a tried and true brand and the maker of some of our favorite streaming devices. Roku offers a number of products, but right now you can pick up the 2024 Roku Ultra for just $1 more than the lowest price we've seen. Currently down to just $80 on Amazon, that saves you $20 on this remote and streaming box combo. The Roku Ultra is at the top end of Roku's lineup and has all the features you're likely to need from a streaming device. Those features include support for 4K streaming, not to mention HDR with Dolby Vision. There's also support for Dolby Atmos for those with compatible audio systems. Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. That isn't all. This Roku Ultra comes with a rechargeable Roku Voice Remote Pro which does more than let you control what you're watching. Plug in the included earbuds to watch your favorite shows without disturbing others, making the Roku Ultra the perfect solution for late-night bedroom TV viewing. The remote also includes quick-launch buttons for popular streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV Plus, Prime Video and Paramount Plus. This deal is unlikely to stick around for long -- be sure to factor that into your buying decision before the price goes back up. Why this deal matters Regularly priced at $100, saving 20% on the cost of this combo streaming device is a decent savings. In his review of the Roku Ultra, editor Ty Pendlebury noted that this version has some upgrades over the previous model, most of them focused on the remote. At full price he found it a bit spendy, but at $80 it becomes much more of a contender. Last year during Black Friday sales, we saw the price dip to $79 -- a record low. If you don't want to wait it out to save a dollar, now is as good a time as any to upgrade. Looking for new content to enjoy on your new Roku Ultra? Check out our list of the best streaming deals before signing up anywhere else.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Jim Cramer Highlights Procter & Gamble (PG) 'Plans to Cut 7,000 Jobs Over Two Years'
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. Discussing what is affecting the consumer packaged goods stocks, Cramer mentioned The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and stated: 'We learned this morning that Procter & Gamble, the unbelievably best consumer packaged goods enterprise on Earth, plans to cut 7,000 jobs over two years. This trimming the workforce would normally have the stock jumping, the market loves cutting costs. It would've been still one more sign that Procter will stop at nothing to keep profitability growing. In a good tape, we would've presumed that P&G is using cheap AI to replace expensive people. But now, when we read the headline, we assume something must be really terribly wrong at the company, and it gets hammered.' Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) provides a wide range of consumer packaged goods across categories such as beauty, grooming, health care, home care, fabric care, baby care, feminine care, and family care, sold under established brand names. A happy couple viewing the products of this household and personal product company in a mass merchandiser store. Overall, PG ranks 12th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of PG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
