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Amazon Wants to be Everything to Everyone

The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
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Amazon Wants to be Everything to Everyone

The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The logo of Amazon is seen on the door of an Amazon Books retail store in New York City, US, February 14, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Amazon is bolstering its e-commerce empire while continuing a march deeper into people's lives, from robots to healthcare and entertainment.
Innovations unveiled in recent days by the Seattle-based tech titan included a delivery van computer system to shave time off deliveries by its speed-obsessed logistics network, reported AFP.
Amazon Stores boss Doug Herrington said that the technology enables vans to recognize stops and signal which packages to drop off.
"When we speed up deliveries, customers shop more," Herrington said.
"For 2024, we're going to have the fastest Prime delivery speeds around the world," he added, referring to Amazon's subscription service.
On top of that, according to Herrington, Amazon last year managed to cut 45 cents off the cost per unit shipped, a huge savings when considering the massive volume of sales.
Prime is the 'glue'
Amazon last year recorded profit of more than $30 billion on revenue of $575 billion, powered by its online retail operation and its AWS cloud computing division.
"They have this whole flywheel model with Amazon Prime membership in the middle," said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian.
"That's the glue that keeps everything together."
Businesses include retail, advertising, cloud computing and streamed movies and music.
But that very model has the 30-year-old company facing a US government lawsuit, accused of expanding an illegal monopoly and otherwise harming competition.
Amazon makes money from data gathered about consumers, either by targeting ads or through insights into what products they might like, Davidkhanian said.
That was why Amazon paid for expensive rights to stream NFL American football games on Prime Video in a move that promises to help it pinpoint fans of the sport.
Amazon's digital assistant Alexa can order items on command and has been even built into appliances such as washing machines to let them automatically buy supplies like laundry soap as needed.
A 'pocket pharmacy'
Amazon showed off enhancements to its virtual health care service called One Medical.
For $9 a month Prime members are promised anytime access to video consultations with health care professionals, along with record keeping and drug prescriptions.
An Amazon Pharmacy takes advantage of the company's delivery network to get prescriptions to patients quickly, striving for speeds of less than 24 hours for 45 percent of customers by the end of next year.
"We're building a pharmacy in your pocket that offers rapid delivery right to your door," Amazon Pharmacy chief Hannah McClellan said, referring to the option of using a smartphone app.
The healthcare market promises to be lucrative for Amazon, which is "trying to be the platform that has everything for everyone," said analyst Davidkhanian.
Real world wrinkles
Amazon has suffered setbacks when it comes to brick-and-mortar stores but it continues to strive for a winning strategy.
The company next year will open its first "automated micro warehouse" in Pennsylvania, next to a Whole Foods Market organic grocery shop, the chain it bought in 2017.
People will be able to pick up certain items selected online, with orders filled by robots, after shopping next door for fresh produce and groceries.
Meanwhile, Amazon is ramping up use of artificial intelligence at its online store with tools helping sellers describe and illustrate products.
Product labels will change according to the user, displaying terms likely to catch their attention such as "strawberry flavor" for some and "gluten-free" for others.
"The things that Amazon is doing with AI are to make sure that you go from researching something to making the purchase as quickly as possible," Davidkhanian said.
At the logistics center near Nashville, robotic arms deftly placed packages in carts that autonomously made their way to trucks.
Logistics center automation improves safety and frees up workers for more interesting tasks, according to Amazon robotics manager Julie Mitchell.
However, critics cite delivery speed pressure and other factors as making Amazon warehouses more dangerous than the industry average.

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Technology

India Eyes $200B in Data Center Investments as It Ramps Up Its AI Hub Ambitions

FILE -Google CEO Sundar Pichai, right, interacts with India's Minister for Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during Google for India 2022 event in New Delhi, Dec. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup), File)
FILE -Google CEO Sundar Pichai, right, interacts with India's Minister for Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during Google for India 2022 event in New Delhi, Dec. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup), File)
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India Eyes $200B in Data Center Investments as It Ramps Up Its AI Hub Ambitions

FILE -Google CEO Sundar Pichai, right, interacts with India's Minister for Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during Google for India 2022 event in New Delhi, Dec. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup), File)
FILE -Google CEO Sundar Pichai, right, interacts with India's Minister for Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw during Google for India 2022 event in New Delhi, Dec. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup), File)

India is hoping to garner as much as $200 billion in investments for data centers over the next few years as it scales up its ambitions to become a hub for artificial intelligence, the country’s minister for electronics and information technology said Tuesday.

The investments underscore the reliance of tech titans on India as a key technology and talent base in the global race for AI dominance. For New Delhi, they bring in high-value infrastructure and foreign capital at a scale that can accelerate its digital transformation ambitions.

The push comes as governments worldwide race to harness AI's economic potential while grappling with job disruption, regulation and the growing concentration of computing power in a few rich countries and companies.

“Today, India is being seen as a trusted AI partner to the Global South nations seeking open, affordable and development-focused solutions,” Ashwini Vaishnaw told The Associated Press in an email interview, as New Delhi hosts a major AI Impact Summit this week drawing participation from at least 20 global leaders and a who’s who of the tech industry.

In October, Google announced a $15 billion investment plan in India over the next five years to establish its first artificial intelligence hub in the South Asian country. Microsoft followed two months later with its biggest-ever Asia investment announcement of $17.5 billion to advance India’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next four years.

Amazon too has committed $35 billion investment in India by 2030 to expand its business, specifically targeting AI-driven digitization. The cumulative investments are part of $200 billion in investments that are in the pipeline and New Delhi hopes would flow in.

Vaishnaw said India’s pitch is that artificial intelligence must deliver measurable impacts at scale rather than remain an elite technology.

“A trusted AI ecosystem will attract investment and accelerate adoption,” he said, adding that a central pillar of India’s strategy to capitalize on the use of AI is building infrastructure.

The government recently announced a long-term tax holiday for data centers as it hopes to provide policy certainty and attract global capital.

Vaishnaw said the government has already operationalized a shared computing facility with more than 38,000 graphics processing units, or GPUs, allowing startups, researchers and public institutions to access high-end computing without heavy upfront costs.

“AI must not become exclusive. It must remain widely accessible,” he said.

Alongside the infrastructure drive, India is backing the development of sovereign foundational AI models trained on Indian languages and local contexts. Some of these models meet global benchmarks and in certain tasks rival widely used large language models, Vaishnaw said.

India is also seeking a larger role in shaping how AI is built and deployed globally as the country doesn’t see itself strictly as a “rule maker or rule taker,” according to Vaishnaw, but an active participant in setting practical, workable norms while expanding its AI services footprint worldwide.

“India will become a major provider of AI services in the near future,” he said, describing a strategy that is “self-reliant yet globally integrated” across applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy.

Investor confidence is another focus area for New Delhi as global tech funding becomes more cautious.

Vaishnaw said the technology’s push is backed by execution, pointing to the Indian government's AI Mission program which emphasizes sector specific solutions through public-private partnerships.

The government is also betting on reskilling its workforce as global concerns grow that AI could disrupt white collar and technology jobs. New Delhi is scaling AI education across universities, skilling programs and online platforms to build a large AI-ready talent pool, the minister said.

Widespread 5G connectivity across the country and a young, tech-savvy population are expected to help with the adoption of AI at a faster pace, he added.

Balancing innovation with safeguards remains a challenge though, as AI expands into sensitive sectors such as governance, health care and finance.

Vaishnaw outlined a fourfold strategy that includes implementable global frameworks, trusted AI infrastructure, regulation of harmful misinformation and stronger human and technical capacity to hedge the impact.

“The future of AI should be inclusive, distributed and development-focused,” he said.

Technology

Report: SpaceX Competing to Produce Autonomous Drone Tech for Pentagon 

The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
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Report: SpaceX Competing to Produce Autonomous Drone Tech for Pentagon 

The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)
The SpaceX logo is seen in this illustration taken, March 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Elon Musk's SpaceX and its wholly-owned subsidiary xAI are competing in a secret new Pentagon contest to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

SpaceX, xAI and the Pentagon's defense innovation unit did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Texas-based SpaceX recently acquired xAI in a deal that combined Musk's major space and defense contractor with the billionaire entrepreneur's artificial intelligence startup. It occurred ahead of SpaceX's planned initial public offering this year.

Musk's companies are reportedly among a select few chosen to participate in the $100 million prize challenge initiated in January, according to the Bloomberg report.

The six-month competition aims to produce advanced swarming technology that can translate voice commands into digital instructions and run multiple drones, the report said.

Musk was among a group of AI and robotics researchers who wrote an open letter in 2015 that advocated a global ban on “offensive autonomous weapons,” arguing against making “new tools for killing people.”

The US also has been seeking safe and cost-effective ways to neutralize drones, particularly around airports and large sporting events - a concern that has become more urgent ahead of the FIFA World Cup and America250 anniversary celebrations this summer.

The US military, along with its allies, is now racing to deploy the so-called “loyal wingman” drones, an AI-powered aircraft designed to integrate with manned aircraft and anti-drone systems to neutralize enemy drones.

In June 2025, US President Donald Trump issued the Executive Order (EO) “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” which accelerated the development and commercialization of drone and AI technologies.

Technology

SVC Develops AI Intelligence Platform to Strengthen Private Capital Ecosystem

The platform offers customizable analytical dashboards that deliver frequent updates and predictive insights- SPA
The platform offers customizable analytical dashboards that deliver frequent updates and predictive insights- SPA
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SVC Develops AI Intelligence Platform to Strengthen Private Capital Ecosystem

The platform offers customizable analytical dashboards that deliver frequent updates and predictive insights- SPA
The platform offers customizable analytical dashboards that deliver frequent updates and predictive insights- SPA

Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) announced the launch of its proprietary intelligence platform, Aian, developed in-house using Saudi national expertise to enhance its institutional role in developing the Kingdom’s private capital ecosystem and supporting its mandate as a market maker guided by data-driven growth principles.

According to a press release issued by the SVC today, Aian is a custom-built AI-powered market intelligence capability that transforms SVC’s accumulated institutional expertise and detailed private market data into structured, actionable insights on market dynamics, sector evolution, and capital formation. The platform converts institutional memory into compounding intelligence, enabling decisions that integrate both current market signals and long-term historical trends, SPA reported.

Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer Nora Alsarhan stated that as Saudi Arabia’s private capital market expands, clarity, transparency, and data integrity become as critical as capital itself. She noted that Aian represents a new layer of national market infrastructure, strengthening institutional confidence, enabling evidence-based decision-making, and supporting sustainable growth.

By transforming data into actionable intelligence, she said, the platform reinforces the Kingdom’s position as a leading regional private capital hub under Vision 2030.

She added that market making extends beyond capital deployment to shaping the conditions under which capital flows efficiently, emphasizing that the next phase of market development will be driven by intelligence and analytical insight alongside investment.

Through Aian, SVC is building the knowledge backbone of Saudi Arabia’s private capital ecosystem, enabling clearer visibility, greater precision in decision-making, and capital formation guided by insight rather than assumption.

Chief Strategy Officer Athary Almubarak said that in private capital markets, access to reliable insight increasingly represents the primary constraint, particularly in emerging and fast-scaling markets where disclosures vary and institutional knowledge is fragmented.

She explained that for development-focused investment institutions, inconsistent data presents a structural challenge that directly impacts capital allocation efficiency and the ability to crowd in private investment at scale.

She noted that SVC was established to address such market frictions and that, as a government-backed investor with an explicit market-making mandate, its role extends beyond financing to building the enabling environment in which private capital can grow sustainably.

By integrating SVC’s proprietary portfolio data with selected external market sources, Aian enables continuous consolidation and validation of market activity, producing a dynamic representation of capital deployment over time rather than relying solely on static reporting.

The platform offers customizable analytical dashboards that deliver frequent updates and predictive insights, enabling SVC to identify priority market gaps, recalibrate capital allocation, design targeted ecosystem interventions, and anchor policy dialogue in evidence.

The release added that Aian also features predictive analytics capabilities that anticipate upcoming funding activity, including projected investment rounds and estimated ticket sizes. In addition, it incorporates institutional benchmarking tools that enable structured comparisons across peers, sectors, and interventions, supporting more precise, data-driven ecosystem development.