Amazon

Amazon is betting its entire retail interface on conversational commerce. Rufus, the AI assistant now used by 250 million customers, delivers 60% higher purchase rates than traditional search, the company claims. The system routes queries between Anthropic's Claude, Amazon Nova, and custom retail models in real time, while new features let users upload handwritten shopping lists via photo. Amazon is simultaneously using AI to rewrite non-compliant seller listings automatically, starting August 15, creating tension with merchants who worry about losing brand voice control.

The arithmetic is brutal: Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft will collectively burn through $650 billion in 2026, mostly on AI infrastructure that generates no immediate revenue. Meta hiked its capex outlook to $145 billion yesterday and promptly shed $950 billion in combined market value across the four companies. Microsoft reported a 66% quarterly jump in spending, while Amazon plans $200 billion on data centers. The scale dwarfs Belgium's GDP and makes 21 other major US firms look quaint with their combined $180 billion. Investors are finally asking the obvious question: where are the returns?

Amazon raised quarterly capex to $31.4 billion, implying an annualized pace exceeding $118 billion as AWS chases AI demand. The company plans $200 billion for data centers and specialized chips, including $50 billion for US government AI infrastructure with 1.3 gigawatts of power capacity. CFO Brian Olsavsky confirmed AWS drives the largest share of spending, with elevated levels expected through 2026. Amazon issued $12 billion in bonds last year to fund the buildout, positioning against Alphabet's $85 billion capex target. The scale reflects hyperscalers' recognition that AI infrastructure is winner-take-all: fall behind now, lose the cloud wars permanently.

Nuclear startups are suddenly bankable as hyperscale data centers devour electricity faster than grids can supply it. X-Energy raised $1.02bn in its public debut with Amazon leading the charge, betting small modular reactors can solve AI's power bottleneck within the decade. The IPO values X-Energy at $3.2bn despite zero commercial reactors operating, a premium that reflects Silicon Valley's desperation for carbon-free baseload power. Amazon needs 40GW of new capacity by 2030 for its data center expansion, equivalent to powering 30 million homes. Traditional renewables cannot match nuclear's density and reliability, making these reactors the only viable path to AI scale without carbon guilt.

Amazon just wrote the biggest AI infrastructure cheque on record. The $100 billion deal with Anthropic guarantees compute capacity through 2030 and positions Amazon Web Services as the primary cloud for Claude development. This is Amazon's insurance policy against Microsoft's OpenAI monopoly, but it also locks Anthropic into AWS architecture at precisely the moment when model training is shifting toward specialized chips. The bet works if Anthropic can challenge GPT performance. If not, Amazon just overpaid for second place.

Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite internet plans hit a wall after Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was grounded following last week's launch anomaly. The company needs 1,600 satellites in orbit by July 2026 to meet FCC requirements or forfeit its spectrum licence. With SpaceX launching 3,000 Starlink satellites annually and Blue Origin now months behind schedule, Amazon faces either expensive third-party launches or regulatory penalties. Jeff Bezos' space ambitions just became his commerce division's problem.