Amazon

Amazon’s lofty ambitions across retail, cloud computing and now AI remain in place as it continues to be among the biggest players in e-commerce. The company, like many others, is deploying AI features and services across its offerings like hosting generative AI models within AWS or adding AI voice search to its smart devices, with TechCrunch particularly covering its efforts within the cloud computing and enterprise spaces.

Amazon’s Prime Day event clocked record sales this year, as U.S. consumers spent $14.2 billion across July 16 and 17, according to Adobe Analytics. This marks an 11% jump from…

Amazon Prime Day 2024 sales hit record $14.2 billion

Adobe’s report noted that consumers spent $7.2 billion on the first day as compared to $6.4 billion on the first day in 2023.

US buyers spent $7.2B on the first day of Amazon’s Prime Day sales event

The AI chatbot has been trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and other public information found around the web.

Amazon AI chatbot Rufus is now live for all US customers

Generative AI is everywhere these days, but Amazon Web Services has been perceived in some circles as being late to the game. In reality it’s still early, and the market…

AWS App Studio promises to generate enterprise apps from a written prompt

Amazon has released an all-new version of its Echo Spot ahead of Prime Day, the company announced on Monday. The 2024 version of the Alexa-enabled smart alarm clock costs $79.99,…

Amazon revives its Echo Spot with an upgraded look and improved audio

As deep-pocketed companies like Amazon, Google and Walmart invest in and experiment with drone delivery, a phenomenon reflective of this modern era has emerged. Drones, carrying snacks and other sundries,…

What happens if you shoot down a delivery drone?

Adept, a startup developing AI-powered “agents” to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon, and the startup’s co-founders and portions of its team have joined…

Amazon hires founders away from AI startup Adept

Amazon is folding its Amazon Clinic telehealth service into its primary care business One Medical, the company announced on Thursday.  The company explained in today’s blog post that, to simplify…

Amazon consolidates Amazon Clinic into the One Medical brand

TikTok is gearing up to challenge Amazon’s Prime Day event in July. The social network announced on Thursday that TikTok Shop is holding a “Deals For You Days” sales event…

TikTok to challenge Amazon Prime Day with its own sales event in July

Amazon is facing another competition lawsuit in the U.K. The latest claim, which was filed Thursday, is seeking more than £2.7 billion in damages — or around $3.4 billion at…

Amazon hit with fresh class action-style suit in UK — $3.4B in competition damages sought for 200,000+ sellers

We’re at a transitional moment in streaming — user growth is slowing and major players are looking to consolidate, but the long-promised dream of profitability finally seems within reach (especially…

Streaming execs think TV’s future looks a lot like its past

Amazon is bringing its generative AI listing smarts to more sellers, revealing today that those in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. can now access tools designed to improve…

Amazon extends generative AI-powered product listings to Europe

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Can quick commerce leapfrog e-commerce in India?

Even as quick commerce startups are retreating, consolidating or shutting down in many parts of the world, the model is showing encouraging signs in India. Consumers in urban cities are embracing the convenience of having groceries delivered to their doorstep in just 10 minutes. The companies making those deliveries —…

Can quick commerce leapfrog e-commerce in India?

To sweeten the pot, Amazon is pledging that startups in this year’s Generative AI Accelerator cohort will gain access to experts and tech from Nvidia, the program’s presenting partner.

Amazon says it’ll spend $230 million on generative AI startups

The British retailers association also takes aim at Amazon’s “Buy Box,” claiming that Amazon manipulated which retailers were selected for the coveted placement.

Amazon slammed with £1.1B data abuse lawsuit from UK retailers

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Amazon buys Indian video streaming service MX Player

Amazon has agreed to acquire key assets of Indian video streaming service MX Player from the local media powerhouse Times Internet, the latest step by the e-commerce giant to make its services and brand popular in smaller cities and towns in the key overseas market.  The two firms reached a…

Amazon buys Indian video streaming service MX Player

Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities.  The self-driving technology company announced Wednesday plans to begin testing in Austin and Miami this summer. The two…

Zoox to test self-driving cars in Austin and Miami 

Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer distances, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its…

Amazon gets FAA approval to expand US drone deliveries

Amazon is rolling out its AI voice search feature to Alexa, which lets it answer open-ended questions about content.

Amazon is rolling out AI voice search to Fire TV devices

Microsoft, Meta, Intel, AMD and others have formed a new group to design next-gen interconnects for AI accelerator hardware.

Tech giants form an industry group to help develop next-gen AI chip components

Scale AI has raised a $1 billion Series F round from a slew of big-name institutional and corporate investors including Amazon and Meta.

Data-labeling startup Scale AI raises $1B as valuation doubles to $13.8B

It’s tough to say that a $100 billion business finds itself at a critical juncture, but that’s the case with Amazon Web Services, the cloud arm of Amazon, and the…

Matt Garman taking over as CEO with AWS at crossroads

AWS has confirmed its European “sovereign cloud” will go live by the end of 2025, enabling greater data residency for the region.

AWS confirms it will launch European ‘sovereign cloud’ in Germany by 2025, plans €7.8B investment over 15 years

Adam Selipsky is stepping down from his role as CEO of Amazon Web Services, Amazon has confirmed to TechCrunch.  In a memo shared internally by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and…

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky steps down

Meesho, a leading e-commerce startup in India, has secured $275 million in a new funding round.

Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform with 150M transacting users, raises $275M

In a post on Werner Vogels’ personal blog, he details Distill, an open-source app he built to transcribe and summarize conference calls.

Amazon’s CTO built a meeting-summarizing app for some reason

Amazon is launching a new tool, Bedrock Studio, designed to let organizations experiment with generative AI models, collaborate on those models, and ultimately build generative AI-powered apps. Available in public…

Bedrock Studio is Amazon’s attempt to simplify generative AI app development

AI is coming for audiobooks, and that is not an entirely bad thing. But it is a cause of concern in the realm of audio titles and the folks who…

TechCrunch Minute: Audible deploys AI-narrated audiobooks. Can it replace the human touch?

Two years after announcing plans, Amazon’s highly awaited e-commerce entry into sub-Saharan Africa has finally come to pass. On Tuesday, the tech giant launched its marketplace in South Africa. South…

Amazon launches a Prime-free marketplace in South Africa, its first in sub-Saharan Africa

Amazon has historically operated audiobook marketplace Audible as a separate entity, unconnected to the retailer’s broader goals and ambitions. Today, that’s changing a bit with the launch of a test…

Audible to test using Prime Video data for audiobook recommendations as Spotify competition heats up