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Race for AI Isn't Zero-sum, Says Amazon Cloud Boss

Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky says there won't be one artificial intelligence platform to rule them all. Stephen Brashear / AFP
Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky says there won't be one artificial intelligence platform to rule them all. Stephen Brashear / AFP
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Race for AI Isn't Zero-sum, Says Amazon Cloud Boss

Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky says there won't be one artificial intelligence platform to rule them all. Stephen Brashear / AFP
Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Adam Selipsky says there won't be one artificial intelligence platform to rule them all. Stephen Brashear / AFP

As Google races with Microsoft and OpenAI to create world-changing generative artificial intelligence, some critics see Amazon as lagging behind.
"I respectfully disagree" with that viewpoint, said Adam Selipsky, Amazon's cloud chief, in an interview with AFP.
Tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta have made headlines talking about their own foundational models, or those of their close partners, that are key to AI and its ability to produce written works, images, videos or even computer code from simple user prompts.
But "there is simply not going to be one model to rule them all," argued Selipsky.
AWS, Amazon's industry-leading cloud branch, is already seeing customers "needing multiple models for multiple different use cases," he explained.
He cited the capabilities of various AI models available on the AWS Bedrock platform, such as Meta's Llama and Claude from Anthropic, as well as some from Mistral in France and Amazon's own Titan brand.
Generative AI is regarded in Silicon Valley as poised to revolutionize the way people get jobs done.
And cloud computing companies, which have massive computing power, troves of data and AI expertise, now host generative AI models. They are in a prime position to capitalize on the new technology -- but they have a lot to lose if they don't cough up the latest innovations.
25 years of AI
A pioneer of e-commerce, Amazon also dominates the cloud. AWS had 31 percent of the cloud computing market at the end of 2023, according to Stocklytics.
But rivals Microsoft and Google are gaining ground with their cloud businesses, with 24 percent and 11 percent market share respectively.
Thanks to a $13 billion investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Microsoft is "in the driver's seat" of an ongoing cloud revolution, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Microsoft and Google compete with their in-house, AI-infused digital assistants to help with creating content -- emails, presentations, ads -- and applications (especially chatbots).
AWS is less known to the public and its digital assistant Alexa is not yet as conversational as ChatGPT.
But Amazon has been in the AI business for more than 25 years, said Selipsky. "If you go back to personalization on the retail website in 1998 -- we called it personalization, but it was AI."
The Seattle firm has long had thousands of people working on the technology and has pivoted some of them to the new frontier of generative AI, Selipsky said.
"We've moved rapidly on new generations of our (AI) chips like Trainium, and building Amazon Bedrock, and getting it adopted quickly and coming out with exciting applications on top of the models, like Amazon Q", an AI assistant, he said.
Selipsky, who took command of AWS in 2021, replacing Andy Jassy, who stepped into the chief executive role vacated by founder Jeff Bezos, was confident Amazon would remain a leader in cloud computing.
Clients eye AI programs
As proof, he points to AWS customers and partners, including Nvidia.
The high-profile chipmaker recently announced it is building a "supercomputer" on AWS using Nvidia's own high-performing processors, the ultra sophisticated and coveted GPUs.
Most notably, Amazon has invested $4 billion in Anthropic, an OpenAI rival that is also backed by Google. The start-up will use AWS and its Trainium chips to build AI models and help "improve our technology," said Selipsky,
When asked about exciting aspects of generative AI, Selipsky cited examples of ramped up productivity for its clients.
AWS user pharmaceutical giant Pfizer estimates that it will launch more powerful drugs faster, achieving as much as a billion dollars in annual savings due to AI, according to Selipsky.
Airlines and other industries are already using generative AI to power chatbots that interact with customers.
And while chatbots can make mistakes, companies reason that "human beings don't give 100 percent accuracy either," Selipsky said. "And in many cases, the models are actually outperforming the accuracy and the usefulness of live agents."
AWS cut hundreds of jobs this month, particularly in sales and marketing, to better focus on AI and other priorities.
But Selipsky was adamant that AI has not replaced any of the cloud platform workers.
"AWS has thousands of job postings online today, and yesterday, and the day before, and we will also have (them) tomorrow," he added.

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Technology

Alswaha: Saudi Arabia Leads International Indicators, Efforts to Bridge AI Gaps

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha speaks at the event in New York. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha speaks at the event in New York. (SPA)
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Alswaha: Saudi Arabia Leads International Indicators, Efforts to Bridge AI Gaps

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha speaks at the event in New York. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha speaks at the event in New York. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha stressed on Tuesday that the Kingdom’s achievements represent the greatest digital success story of the 21st century.

This was possible by the support of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the direct enablement by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, reflecting their ambitious vision for building a comprehensive technological future.

The minister made his remarks from New York during his participation in the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Alswaha said that progress in the information society is reflected worldwide, with the number of internet users rising from around 800 million to nearly 6 billion.

The Kingdom ranked first globally on the ICT Development Index (IDI) issued by the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and made remarkable progress in empowering women in the digital world, with female participation reaching approximately 36%, he revealed.

He highlighted that the foremost challenge today lies in bridging the gaps in artificial intelligence (AI), namely the computing gap, the data gap, and the algorithm gap.

Alswaha stated that the Kingdom leveraged its capabilities to boost advanced computing power and launch national language models that help close the data gap in the Arab world, including the AI model “ALLaM.”

Moreover, he noted global scientific achievements, such as Saudi scientist Omar Yaghi winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s scientific presence on the international stage.

He stressed that the achievements reflect the profound impact of the support from King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed in consolidating the Kingdom’s global standing, enhancing its pivotal role in leading a more inclusive technological future, harnessing technologies for human benefit, supporting sustainable development, and aligning with the world’s aspirations for a more advanced and integrated era.

Technology

App Developers Urge EU Action on Apple Fee Practices 

An Apple logo adorns the façade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP)
An Apple logo adorns the façade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP)
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App Developers Urge EU Action on Apple Fee Practices 

An Apple logo adorns the façade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP)
An Apple logo adorns the façade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store on March 14, 2020, in New York. (AP)

A coalition of 20 app developers and consumer groups on Tuesday called upon European regulators to enforce EU laws against Apple, saying the company's fee structure unfairly disadvantages European developers compared to their US rivals after a recent court decision in the United States.

The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), implemented in 2023, mandates that large tech platforms labelled "gatekeepers", such as Apple, facilitate in-app transactions outside their ecosystem at no charge.

The coalition's appeal reflects concerns over a disparity following a US court ruling that restricts Apple's ability to impose fees on external transactions.

The European Commission earlier this year fined Apple 500 million euros ($588 million) for breaching the DMA by obstructing developers from guiding users to alternative payment methods.

In response to the EU ruling, Apple revised its terms to impose fees ranging from 13% for smaller businesses to up to 20% for App Store purchases, alongside penalties of 5% to 15% on external transactions.

The Coalition for Apps Fairness (CAF), representing firms such as Deezer and Proton, argues these revised fees still violate DMA stipulations and says that US developers benefit from more favorable terms after the court decision.

"This situation is untenable and damaging to the app economy," CAF said in a statement, accusing Apple of undermining transparency and stifling innovation.

Global Policy Counsel for CAF, Gene Burrus, said that developers in the EU have to either bear the cost of those fees or pass them down to customers.

"It is bad for European companies, and it is bad for European consumers," he said.

According to CAF, European developers remain disadvantaged six months after the Commission declared Apple's policies illegal under the DMA.

Although Apple has announced further policy changes to take effect in January, it has yet to specify what these revisions will entail, fueling dissatisfaction among developers over the lack of clarity.

"We want the EU Commission to tell Apple that the law is the law and that free of charge means free of charge," Burrus said, adding that the European authorities should consider referring the issue to the European Court of Justice if necessary.

Technology

Will OpenAI Be the Next Tech Giant or Next Netscape?

While OpenAI does not expect to be profitable before 2029, the startup's valuation keeps climbing in funding rounds baffling some financial analysts. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
While OpenAI does not expect to be profitable before 2029, the startup's valuation keeps climbing in funding rounds baffling some financial analysts. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
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Will OpenAI Be the Next Tech Giant or Next Netscape?

While OpenAI does not expect to be profitable before 2029, the startup's valuation keeps climbing in funding rounds baffling some financial analysts. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
While OpenAI does not expect to be profitable before 2029, the startup's valuation keeps climbing in funding rounds baffling some financial analysts. Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

Three years after ChatGPT made OpenAI the leader in artificial intelligence and a household name, rivals have closed the gap and some investors are wondering if the sensation has the wherewithal to stay dominant.

Investor Michael Burry, made famous in the film "The Big Short," recently likened OpenAI to Netscape, which ruled the web browser market in the mid-1990s only to lose to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

"OpenAI is the next Netscape, doomed and hemorrhaging cash," Burry said recently in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Researcher Gary Marcus, known for being skeptical of AI hype, sees OpenAI as having lost the lead it captured with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

The startup is "burning billions of dollars a month," Marcus said of OpenAI.

"Given how long the writing has been on the wall, I can only shake my head" as it falls.

Yet ChatGPT was a tech launch like no other, breaking all consumer product growth records and now boasting more than 800 million -- paid subscription and unpaid -- weekly users.

OpenAI's valuation has soared to $500 billion in funding rounds, higher than any other private company.

But the ChatGPT maker will end this year with a loss of several billion dollars and does not expect to be profitable before 2029, an eternity in the fast-moving and uncertain world of AI.

Nonetheless, the startup has committed to paying more than $1.4 trillion to computer chip makers and data center builders to build infrastructure it needs for AI.

The fierce cash burn is raising questions, especially since Google claims some 650 million people use its Gemini AI monthly and the tech giant has massive online ad revenue to back its spending on technology.

Rivals Amazon, Meta and OpenAI-investor Microsoft have deep pockets the ChatGPT-maker cannot match.

Turbulence ahead?

A charismatic salesman, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman flashed rare annoyance when asked about the startup's multi-trillion-dollar contracts in early November.

A few days later, he warned internally that the startup is likely to face a "turbulent environment" and an "unfavorable economic climate," particularly given competitive pressure from Google.

And when Google released its latest model to positive reactions, Altman issued a "red alert," urging OpenAI teams to give ChatGPT their best efforts.

OpenAI unveiled its latest ChatGPT model last week, that same day announcing Disney would invest in the startup and license characters for use in the bot and Sora video-generating tool.

OpenAI's challenge is inspiring the confidence that the large sums of money it is investing will pay off, according to Foundation Capital partner Ashu Garg.

For now OpenAI is raising money at lofty valuations while returns on those investments are questionable, Garg added.

Yet OpenAI still has the faith of the world's deepest-pocketed investors.

"I'm always expecting OpenAI's valuation to come down because competition is coming and its capital structure is so obviously inappropriate," said Pluris Valuation Advisors president Espen Robak.

"But it only seems to be going up."

Opinions are mixed on whether the situation will result in OpenAI postponing becoming a publicly traded company or instead make its way faster to Wall Street to cash in on the AI euphoria.

Few AI industry analysts expect OpenAI to implode completely, since there is room in the market for several models to thrive.

"At the end of the day, it's not winner take all," said CFRA analyst Angelo Zino.

"All of these companies will take a piece of the pie, and the pie continues to get bigger," he said of AI industry frontrunners.

Also factored in is that while OpenAI has made dizzying financial commitments, terms of deals tend to be flexible and Microsoft is a major backer of the startup.