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☆ We bought a home by the ocean for $212K in Laguna Beach, CA
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-15 | by ( Lauren Shamo | Gene Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Unlocked is a home tour series focused on how much people across the globe spend on their housing, what they get for the money and what they had to sacrifice to make it happen.

☆ Amazon has a secret workaround to scrape Microsoft's GitHub for AI model training data, leaked memo shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Microsoft is likely to be unhappy when it discovers that its arch rival Amazon is leaning hard on GitHub for AI training data. "Our LLMs are trained on data from a variety of sources, including licensed and proprietary data, open-source datasets, and publicly available data where appropriate. It also said Amazon employees should create a "classic personal token," not a "fine-grained personal token," when signing up. Tech companies, hungry for even more training data, are also granting themselves new permissions to use a lot more of consumers' information. Though Amazon's legal team has approved the GitHub data scraping workaround, the move could put Amazon in a tricky position.

Persons: —, Rohit Prasad NurPhoto, Rohit Prasad, Amazon, Amazon's, Andy Jassy, Prasad, Matthew Butterick, Joseph Saveri, Joseph Saveri's, Butterick, Copilot Organizations: Service, Business, General Intelligence Group, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, GitHub, News Corp, Tech, Alexa Locations: GitHub

☆ Adobe employees slam the company over AI controversy: 'Let's avoid becoming like IBM'
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-12 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The company had to quell those concerns with a blog post denying this. But some Adobe employees are still not happy with the response, and they are calling for improved communication with customers. According to screenshots of an internal Slack channel, obtained by Business Insider, Adobe employees complained about the company's poor response to the controversy and demanded a better long-term communication plan. Advertisement"We've never trained generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of a customer's work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements. Some employees applauded Adobe's effort to use language that is easier to understand in the blog post.

Persons: —, Adobe, Slack, We've, Scott Belsky, Belsky Organizations: Service, Business, Adobe, IBM, Software, YouTube

☆ Amazon pulled out of Figure's huge AI-robotics funding round at the last minute
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon withdrew from investing in Figure, an AI-robotics startup valued at $2.6 billion. Figure raised $675 million in February from investors including Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos. Figure committed to using Microsoft's Azure cloud service when it announced the funding round. In February, Figure announced it raised $675 million from investors including Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. At the time, a number of publications reported that Amazon's Industrial Innovation Fund was one of the investors in Figure.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, — Organizations: Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, Service, Innovation, Business

☆ Apple alerted Amazon about a potential cloud security risk, prompting a change in AWS's data-deletion process
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Read previewAmazon Web Services made major changes to its data-deletion process after Apple alerted the cloud giant about a potential security risk, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. However, the AWS cloud services involved store information such as software, text, audio, video, images, resource identifiers, metadata tags, and permissions. These people asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive cloud security issue. Security is a top priority for AWSAmazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman AmazonFor AWS, security has always been a top priority. The AWS security team suggested taking actions to "meaningfully improve" the quality of the data-deletion process and "define a clear guideline" around it.

Persons: —, It's, Patrick Neighorn, Neighorn, didn't, it's, Justin Cappos, Fabrice Delhoste, Ken Elefant, Matt Garman, Brad Smith Organizations: Service, Services, Apple, Business, Amazon, AWS, BI, Employees, NYU, Sorenson Ventures, Security, Web, US Homeland Security, Microsoft, Committee

☆ Amazon's Shopify killer got off to a slow start, according to sellers and internal emails
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Madeline Stone | Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Rainier...)," Larsen wrote in the email, referring to a snowcapped peak near Seattle, where Amazon is headquartered. Months later, Amazon struck a deal with Shopify that put Buy with Prime on the Shopify merchant marketplace, extending the tool's reach with sellers. Advertisement"When merchants push that metric to >75%, it'll be a good indication that we've found product-market fit," Larsen wrote. To use Buy with Prime, Amazon charges merchants a 3% Prime service fee in addition to fulfillment fees and payment processing fees. However, Piiparinen said the 3% service fee is less than the referral fees merchants pay when selling on Amazon.com.

Persons: —, Craig Leslie, Leslie, It's, Peter Larsen, Andy Jassy, Larsen, Santos, Anders Piiparinen, who's, doesn't, Piiparinen, Amazon's, Smart, ZOA, GreatCircleUS.com, Madeline Stone Organizations: Service, Amazon, Business, Bean Coffee Company, Shoppers, Ekrin Athletics, BI, Prime Locations: . Rainier, ., Seattle, Piiparinen, mstone@businessinsider.com

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailI bought an ice cream shop—now it brings in $1.2 million a yearShawn Allard, 27, quit his job as a dental consultant last year to buy Novel Ice Cream, which owns two Arizona-based ice cream shops. Novel boasts 12 different ice cream flavors, which can be scooped into a standard waffle cone or stuffed between either glazed donuts or Belgian waffles. The business brought in $1.2 million in 2023 sales, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Persons: Shawn Allard Organizations: CNBC Locations: Arizona

☆ Inside Amazon's struggle to crack Nvidia's AI-chip dominance
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

"I'm not aware of anyone using AWS chips in any sort of large volumes," Rasgon told Business Insider, referring to Amazon's AI chips. This time, the idea is to avoid paying for expensive Nvidia GPUs, while still providing cloud customers with powerful AI services. An obvious response to this would be to have cloud customers use Amazon's AI chips instead. However, some of the largest AWS customers have not been willing to use these homegrown alternatives, the documents said. For example, AWS's AI chips still have "compatibility gaps" in certain open-source frameworks, making Nvidia GPUs a more popular option.

Persons: —, Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein, I'm, Rasgon, Adam Selipsky, Jensen Huang, Andy Jassy, Inferentia, Trainium, Omdia, Snowflake's, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Eóin Noonan, CUDA, Ramaswamy, James Hamilton, Jassy, Gartner, Huang Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Google, Business, Services, Nvidia, Intel, Amazon, NVIDIA CUDA, Netflix, Neuron, AWS, NVIDIA, Amazon VP, James Hamilton Amazon, BI Locations: CUDA, Toronto

☆ Inside Amazon's struggle to crack Nvidia's AI chip dominance
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The in-house AI chip efforts have yet to make a major dent in Nvidia's grip on the market. 'Parity with CUDA'Internally at Amazon, Nvidia's CUDA platform is repeatedly cited as the biggest roadblock for the AI chip initiative. AdvertisementAn obvious response to this would be to have cloud customers use Amazon's own AI chips instead. AdvertisementFor example, AWS's AI chips still have "compatibility gaps" in certain open-source frameworks, making Nvidia GPUs a more popular option. Don't count Amazon outDespite Amazon's AI chip struggles, the effort seems to have caught the attention of Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang.

Persons: —, Bernstein, Stacy Rasgon, I'm, Rasgon, Adam Selipsky, Jensen Huang, Andy Jassy, Inferentia, Trainium, We're, Snowflake's, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Eóin Noonan, Ramaswamy, James Hamilton, Jassy, Gartner, Amazon's, Huang Organizations: Service, Microsoft, Google, Business, Nvidia, Intel, Amazon, BI, Annapurna, NVIDIA CUDA, Netflix, Neuron, AWS, Amazon VP, James Hamilton Amazon, Amazon SVP Locations: Inferentia, Toronto, Canada, CUDA

☆ Wall Street worries about revenue 'round-tripping,' after big AI deals by cloud giants including Amazon and Google
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

These days, this may happen when a big tech company invests in an AI startup, and then that startup buys cloud and AI services from the big tech company. These arrangements are called "round tripping" because the money invested comes right back in the form of cloud spending. When Amazon Web Services invested $4 billion in Anthropic, the AI startup agreed to use AWS as its "primary cloud provider." In recent years, cloud spending growth has slowed as some customers try to save money in the midst of a lackluster economy with high inflation. An Amazon spokesperson declined to say whether AWS revenue numbers include cloud spending by Anthropic or not.

Persons: —, what's, Rishi Jaluria, GCP, Jaluria Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, RBC Capital, RBC, Amazon Locations: Anthropic

☆ Amazon's cloud business needs a 'bulldozer.' New AWS CEO Matt Garman fits the bill.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Read previewAt an October all-hands meeting, an Amazon Web Services employee asked executive Matt Garman about the company's difficult work environment. The people who spoke with BI about Garman asked not to be identified so they could freely discuss his abilities. One AWS employee pointed out to BI that Amazon Q was months behind the launch of Microsoft's AI Copilots. Associated PressOutside of AI, AWS has struggled in its core startups and small business segments, failing short of sales targets last year, as BI previously reported. Those customers are particularly important for AWS because the company built its early business by embracing that market.

Persons: —, Matt Garman, Garman, It's, Adam Selipsky, Selipsky, Andy Jassy, Matt, Amazon's, Patrick Neighorn, He'd, We're, Neighorn, it's, Claude, AWS's, let's Organizations: Service, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Business Insider, Employees, Business, Amazon, Stanford, BI, Mizuho Securities, Q, Cohere, Mistral, Google, Associated Locations: Anthropic

☆ Amazon's cloud CEO departs with dour views on his tenure, amid growing competition and AI woes
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Selipsky's three years as AWS CEO were marked by mixed results. AdvertisementHe steered through some of the cloud business' slowest growth rates, largest layoffs, and biggest challenges in the artificial intelligence space. AdvertisementAmazon's generative AI service Bedrock was delayed after originally being scheduled to launch in the fall of 2022, the person said. Garman was once considered a frontrunner to replace former AWS CEO Andy Jassy in 2021 when Jassy took over as Amazon's CEO. Some insiders referred to Selipsky as "just a sales guy" and "uninspiring," as the cloud leader faced unprecedented competition in generative AI.

Persons: —, Adam, Selipsky, shakeup, Patrick Neighorn, Matt Garman, Garman, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Amazon, Ashley Stewart Organizations: Service, Web Services, Business, AWS, Amazon, BI, Rivals Microsoft, Google

☆ Adam Selipsky is out at AWS
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewAmazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky is stepping down from his role leading Amazon's cloud unit, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider and later posted to Amazon's website. Matt Garman, currently senior vice president of sales, marketing, and global services for AWS, will assume the CEO role. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. AdvertisementSelipsky, who first worked for AWS between 2005 and 2016, was tapped by Jassy to lead the unit in 2021. Selipsky led AWS during the height of the pandemic when the shift to remote work spurred an unprecedented spike in demand for cloud services.

Persons: —, Adam Selipsky, Matt Garman, Matt, Andy Jassy, Jassy, He'll, Selipsky, Ellen Thomas, Eugene Kim Organizations: Service, Business, AWS

☆ ChatGPT just made AI more human, and it should make its rivals nervous
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The AI company basically planted a flag in the sand emblazoned with two words aimed at its Big Tech rivals: your move. The newest version of the AI chatbot, powered by OpenAI's new flagship AI model GPT-4o, can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time. AdvertisementAll the while, the voice assistant maintained a lighthearted and cheerful tone. In another instance, ChatGPT said the researcher was making it blush when he said he was talking about how "useful and amazing" ChatGPT was. Meanwhile, Amazon had plans to release an "Alexa Plus" paid version of the voice assistant that's powered by generative AI, Business Insider's Eugene Kim first reported.

Persons: —, Sam Altman, Mira Murati, Scarlett Johansson, Spike, Mark, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Alexa, Apple's Siri, Siri, There's, Insider's Eugene Kim Organizations: Service, Big Tech, Business, Warner Bros, Google, Apple, Amazon Locations: ChatGPT

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailI'm much happier living in Belgium than in the U.S. - here's how much it costsJessica van Dop DeJesus, 45, relocated with her family from Washington, D.C. to Brussels, Belgium in 2021. Last year, Jessica and her husband purchased an apartment for about $587,000, where they live with their young daughter. Jessica says that despite paying higher taxes in Europe, she has gained financial security — and a sense of ease.

Persons: Jessica van Dop DeJesus, Jessica Locations: Belgium, U.S, Washington ,, Brussels, Europe

☆ New FTC transcript reveals juicy details on how Jeff Bezos and other top Amazon execs used disappearing messages
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-03 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

In the past, he set Signal messages to automatically delete after one week. "I never would have used Signal under any circumstances with disappearing messages on or off to discuss any complicated business issues. Associated PressJEDI ContractThe FTC lawyer also showed Bezos a log of Signal messages that were used with the disappearing message feature activated. He said he "did not" know Signal messages were covered by those legal guidelines. The company was "unable to determine" why that's the case, but said it's possible Signal messages were deleted when they got new phones.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, Bezos, Mike Hopkins, —, Andy Jassy, Amazon's, Jassy, Donald Trump, there's, I'm, Jeff Blackburn, Hopkins, Blackburn, Blackburn wasn't, Blackburn's, Max Organizations: Federal Trade, Amazon, Business, FTC, Associated Press, Defense Department, Microsoft, Department of Defense, Blackburn, Bezos Locations: Bezos, Blackburn

☆ Leaked memo: Amazon requires cloud events to spend up to 80% of their time talking about generative AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewExpect a lot more talk of generative AI at Amazon cloud computing events this year. "Up to 80% of all Global Summit sessions will be sourced from 2023 re:Invent sessions tagged to Gen AI." The new directive shows how Amazon is going to extraordinary lengths to promote its AI prowess, at a time when interest in generative AI is skyrocketing. On Tuesday, Jassy said Amazon is on pace to generate "multi-billion" dollars in revenue this year from its generative AI offerings. Generative AI has already been accounting for a larger share of Amazon's public comments.

Persons: —, Patrick Neighorn, we've, Andy Jassy, Jassy, It's Organizations: Service, Services, Business, AWS, Amazon, Global, Microsoft, Google, Meta

☆ I live above a mall in Miami, FL for $4,150/month - take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Valentina Duarte | Gene Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Unlocked is a home tour series focused on how much people across the globe spend on their housing, what they get for the money and what they had to sacrifice to make it happen.

Big tech companies have pulled back on PERM applications, often the first step to a green card. AdvertisementBig tech companies have backed off green card applications in a big way because the process has become tougher and there's less competition for talent. "If some of these people say 'yes, I'm interested,' then you're out of luck with the green card application." So this makes the green card process potentially easier outside of places like the Bay Area and NYC, she explained. Are you a foreign tech worker struggling with a green card application?

Persons: Ava Benach, —, Googlers, Benach, It's, Hugh Langley, Kali Hays, Eugene Kim Organizations: Big, Google, Service, Department of Labor, Washington DC, Amazon, Business, Meta, Companies, Citizenship, Immigration Services, Supply, Bay, Labor, Area, Big Tech, US, Department, Labor Department, Software Engineer, Research Locations: PERM, Silicon Valley, New York City, Washington, khays@businessinsider.com

☆ Who could buy TikTok?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Still, the company is under such close scrutiny that it would be a poor candidate to buy TikTok, experts say. If you were to tell me it’s Verizon, or AT&T, maybe it’s not as big of a problem.”Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Emarketer, highlighted a paradox: Only the largest, most dominant tech giants may have the resources to buy TikTok. Microsoft had been one of the handful of contenders to buy TikTok in 2020 when President Donald Trump first pushed for a sale. A former Trump Cabinet official enters the frayIn a move that caught many by surprise, former Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced last month that he is putting together a team of investors to buy TikTok. As with Mnuchin, O’Leary has said a potential acquisition of TikTok may have to exclude TikTok’s algorithm.

Persons: Joe Biden, There’s, ”, Gene Kimmelman, Jasmine Enberg, ” Enberg, TikTok’s, Donald Trump, TikTok, Steven Mnuchin, Mnuchin, ” Oregon Democratic Sen, Ron Wyden, Trump, who’ve, Kevin O’Leary, O’Leary Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Google, Meta, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Department, YouTube, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Verizon, Emarketer, Activision Blizzard, Walmart, Oracle, Project Texas, Texas, Trump Cabinet, Trump Treasury, Trump, ” Oregon Democratic, Washington Post, O’Leary Ventures Locations: United States, TikTok, ” Oregon

☆ Amazon has suspended new US Green Card applications for foreign workers, leaked memo shows
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon has suspended new US Green Card sponsorships for foreign workers until the end of 2024. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementAmazon won't be sponsoring any new US Green Cards for foreign workers for the rest of this year, a sign of sustained weakness in the tech job market. It aims to check that admitting foreign workers into the country doesn't impact job opportunities, wages and working conditions of US workers. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Amazon, Green, Service, Cards, Business, US Department of Labor Locations: PERM

☆ Amazon Prime looked like it had plateaued. Now a record 3 out of 4 Americans use it.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon's Prime membership hit a record 180 million US shoppers in Q1, according to new estimates. Now a record 75% of Americans use the subscription service. AdvertisementJust over a year ago, Amazon's Prime subscription service looked like it had plateaued. Prime reached a record 180 million US shoppers in the first quarter, data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners suggests. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, It's Organizations: Amazon's, Service, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Business

☆ Leaked presentation reveals Microsoft's astounding plan to ramp up data center capacity for the AI boom
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Since July 2023, the start of Microsoft's latest fiscal year, the company delivered more than 500 megawatts of new data center capacity, the document revealed. The rise of generative AI and huge foundation models is fueling a new data center boom. Microsoft's 5 gigawatts of installed data center capacity is equivalent to Hong Kong or Portugal's annual energy consumption, according to Shaolei Ren, an electrical and computer engineering professor at UC Riverside. This will require Microsoft to deliver more than 200 megawatts in data center capacity every month. "This is a very large data center capacity."

Persons: Shaolei Ren, Ren Organizations: Microsoft, Business, OpenAI, UC Riverside, BI Locations: Hong Kong

☆ Leaked presentation reveals Microsoft's astounding plan to ramp up data-center capacity for the AI boom
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-17 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft significantly expanded its data-center capacity recently and plans to ramp up growth to astounding levels going forward, according to an internal document obtained by Business Insider. Since July 2023, the start of Microsoft's latest fiscal year, the company delivered more than 500 megawatts of new data-center capacity, the document disclosed. This requires Microsoft to deliver more than 200 megawatts in data-center capacity every month. "This is a very large data-center capacity." Microsoft's GPU footprint expanded into 39 additional data centers in this period, and the company now has "AI clusters" live in 98 locations globally.

Persons: Shaolei Ren, Ren Organizations: Microsoft, Business, Operations, Innovation, OpenAI, University of California, BI Locations: Riverside, Hong Kong

☆ Amazon Prime Video viewers have been ditching shows because of its error-plagued catalog system, leaked docs show
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Amazon has invested billions of dollars in Prime Video to secure original content and live-streaming rights. CEO confidenceIn Amazon's recent annual shareholder letter, CEO Andy Jassy showed his continued support for Prime Video. "We have increasing conviction that Prime Video can be a large and profitable business on its own," he wrote. Among the top "catalog quality issues" were incomplete or inconsistent titles, as well as a "Season Integrity" problem. Multiple posts about wrong movie titles on Prime Video can also be found on Amazon's forum and Reddit.

Persons: Amazon, Andy Jassy, Video's headcount, they're, Anthony Palomba, Palomba, It's Organizations: Amazon, Business, MGM, BI, Prime, Citadel, House, Amazon's, University of Virginia

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