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.
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 consolidates Amazon Clinic into the One Medical brand
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…
TikTok to challenge Amazon Prime Day with its own sales event in July
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…
Amazon hit with fresh class action-style suit in UK — $3.4B in competition damages sought for 200,000+ sellers
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…
Streaming execs think TV’s future looks a lot like its past
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…
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…
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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 —…
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.
The British retailers association also takes aim at Amazon’s “Buy Box,” claiming that Amazon manipulated which retailers were selected for the coveted placement.
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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…
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…
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 is rolling out AI voice search to Fire TV devices
Amazon is rolling out its AI voice search feature to Alexa, which lets it answer open-ended questions about content.
Tech giants form an industry group to help develop next-gen AI chip components
Microsoft, Meta, Intel, AMD and others have formed a new group to design next-gen interconnects for AI accelerator hardware.
Data-labeling startup Scale AI raises $1B as valuation doubles to $13.8B
Scale AI has raised a $1 billion Series F round from a slew of big-name institutional and corporate investors including Amazon and Meta.
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…
AWS confirms it will launch European ‘sovereign cloud’ in Germany by 2025, plans €7.8B investment over 15 years
AWS has confirmed its European “sovereign cloud” will go live by the end of 2025, enabling greater data residency for the region.
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…
Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform with 150M transacting users, raises $275M
Meesho, a leading e-commerce startup in India, has secured $275 million in a new funding round.
In a post on Werner Vogels’ personal blog, he details Distill, an open-source app he built to transcribe and summarize conference calls.
Bedrock Studio is Amazon’s attempt to simplify generative AI app development
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…
TechCrunch Minute: Audible deploys AI-narrated audiobooks. Can it replace the human touch?
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…
Amazon launches a Prime-free marketplace in South Africa, its first in sub-Saharan Africa
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…
Audible to test using Prime Video data for audiobook recommendations as Spotify competition heats up
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…
Amazon CodeWhisperer is now called Q Developer and is expanding its functions
Pour one out for CodeWhisperer, Amazon’s AI-powered assistive coding tool. As of today, it’s kaput — sort of. CodeWhisperer is now Q Developer, a part of Amazon’s Q family of…
UK probes Amazon and Microsoft over AI partnerships with Mistral, Anthropic and Inflection
The UK is launching initial enquiries into Amazon and Microsoft over partnerships with AI companies Mistral, Anthropic, and Inflection.
AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing business, wants to become the go-to place companies host and fine-tune their custom generative AI models. Today, AWS announced the launch of Custom Model Import (in…
Amazon said Tuesday that it has launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription for Prime members and customers with an EBT card (Electronic Benefit Transfer) in the U.S. if you’re…
Amazon confirmed it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station,…
India scrambles to curb PhonePe and Google’s dominance in mobile payments
The NPCI plans to meet various fintech startups this month to develop a strategy to address the market dominance of PhonePe and Google Pay in the UPI ecosystem.
