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Twenty years after pioneering the cloud, Amazon Web Services chases the AI prize
AWS races to lead the next big shift in computing and work - AI agents
Mar. 13, 2026 at 3:27pm
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Twenty years after launching the pioneering cloud service S3, Amazon Web Services is now chasing the next big opportunity in computing - artificial intelligence agents. While AWS has long dominated the cloud market, it faces an existential challenge in catching up to rivals like Google and Microsoft in the fast-moving world of generative AI. To stay on top, AWS is racing to industrialize AI and make AI agents a core part of its platform, offering customers a full stack of services to build, deploy and operate AI-powered agents at scale.
Why it matters
AWS' ability to maintain its cloud dominance and define the next era of computing depends on whether it can seize the opportunity in agentic AI. If it missed the boat on mainstream chatbots and foundation models, agentic AI may be the mulligan it needs, as it requires more than just the biggest or fastest model - it needs the vast array of cloud services that AWS provides. Winning in agentic AI could make it the next multibillion-dollar business for AWS.
The details
AWS is reorienting its organization to focus on AI, combining its AI model, chip and quantum computing research teams. It is also creating new units focused on AI agents, led by veteran Amazon AI exec Swami Sivasubramanian. AWS is pitching its full computing stack - from chips to storage to AI models - as a key differentiator for its AI ambitions, claiming it can offer customers everything they need for their 'AI factories.' This includes its own Graviton and Trainium chips as well as a flexible data platform to handle the intensive real-time needs of AI. AWS is also pragmatically partnering with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic, providing infrastructure and distribution in exchange for commitments to use its services.
- AWS launched its pioneering S3 cloud storage service on March 14, 2006.
- In the fourth quarter of 2022, Amazon said capital spending will jump to $200 billion this year, up from $131 billion a year ago, with roughly three-quarters of that spend on AWS.
The players
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
The cloud computing division of Amazon.com Inc., which pioneered the cloud computing industry with the launch of its S3 storage service in 2006 and now offers over 240 cloud services.
Jeff Bezos
The founder and former CEO of Amazon, who spoke to the author 20 years ago about AWS' strategy of not closely following competitors.
Andy Jassy
The current CEO of Amazon and the founding CEO of AWS.
Matt Garman
The current CEO of AWS, who has sought to reorient the organization to capitalize on the opportunity in agentic AI.
Swami Sivasubramanian
The vice president of AWS agentic AI, who previously worked on early AWS projects like DynamoDB and CloudFront.
What they’re saying
“There are lots of examples of close following being an excellent strategy. It just happens not to be us. In a fast-moving area like the internet, that kind of close following doesn't work as well.”
— Jeff Bezos
“Agentic AI has the potential to be the next multibillion-[dollar] business for AWS.”
— Matt Garman, AWS CEO
“We're really well-positioned to do any AI workloads. We have fine-grained control of the entire stack.”
— Rahul Kulkarni, General Manager of Product Management for AWS Compute and AI Infrastructure
“Every AI application is a data application.”
— Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec, VP of Technology for Data and Analytics at AWS
“We realized a single model is not going to rule the world. Model choice is paramount. The majority of our customers are [using] more than one model.”
— Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AWS Agentic AI
What’s next
The judge in the case will decide on Tuesday whether or not to allow Walker Reed Quinn out on bail.
The takeaway
This case highlights growing concerns in the community about repeat offenders released on bail, raising questions about bail reform, public safety on SF streets, and if any special laws to govern autonomous vehicles in residential and commercial areas.
