DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ AWS is investing $100 million in generative A.I. center in race to keep up with Microsoft and Google
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

But the announcement shows that Amazon Web Services recognizes the significance of the current moment in generative AI and the importance of being in the conversation, alongside rivals Microsoft and Google . However, those rivals have had splashier entrances into generative AI, even though Amazon has drawn broadly on AI for years to show shopping recommendations and operate its Alexa voice assistant. For Amazon, that momentum applies to its Bedrock generative AI service and its Titan models as well as the new innovation center. Really, you need the cloud for generative AI." Also, the way Selipsky sees it, AWS provides a measure of credibility in offering generative AI that eludes others in the space.

Persons: OpenAI, Adam Selipsky, Selipsky, isn't, Jeff Bezos, we're, I've Organizations: Web Services, Microsoft, Google, CNBC, RyanAir, Lonely, Amazon, Nvidia, Fortune, FTC Locations: Twilio

☆ Inside Amazon's rush to respond to ChatGPT. 'Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"Amazon must be really scared about being late on all of this," one Amazon employee said in an interview. The same rules apply to the new Microsoft Bing search engine that uses ChatGPT's technology, an internal document said. "Since generative AI is all the rage right now, it will be included in the themes, and there will be a special award for the project that best demonstrates generative AI," the email said. Mike Blake/ReutersEmployees are still curious about Amazon's response to ChatGPT and generative AI, frequently bringing up the topic in internal town-hall meetings. He also said that Amazon's top leadership team, called the S-team, was "very excited about it" and that generative AI was a "big area of focus for us."

Persons: ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Sven Hoppe, It's, hackathons, Andy Jassy, Mike Blake, Adam Selipsky, Jassy, Eugene Kim Organizations: Amazon, Echo, Microsoft, Employees, Getty, Bloomberg, Burnham, Reuters Employees

☆ Microsoft made a big bet with ChatGPT. Months later, it’s already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft bet billions on OpenAI — its gamble is already paying off. Some analysts said Microsoft's successful integration of AI signals that it has already pulled ahead of Google. They even projected that Microsoft's cloud service Azure could be on track to surpass long-dominant Amazon Web Services. My teammate Paayal Zaveri highlights how Microsoft's AI wager has made it a surprising leader in tech's hottest field. He hit $2 million by the end of 2020, and in 2022 alone, he sold $4 million worth of products.

☆ Internal email shows Amazon has started laying off cloud employees as part of its plan to cut 9,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon Web Services began laying off cloud employees on Monday, an internal email shows. The cloud unit's professional services team, ProServe, is one of the units being cut, two people said. Amazon Web Services began laying off employees on Monday as part of Amazon's plan to trim 9,000 jobs across the company, according to an internal email viewed by Insider. I wanted to let you know that conversations with impacted AWS employees started today, with notification messages sent to all impacted employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. In other regions, we are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies and possibly result in longer timelines to communicate with impacted employees.

Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky and human resources head Beth Galetti sent notes to staffers informing them of the job cuts. I wanted to let you know that conversations with impacted AWS employees started today, with notification messages sent to all impacted employees in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica. In other regions, we are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies and possibly result in longer timelines to communicate with impacted employees. To those to whom we are saying goodbye today, thank you for everything you have done for this business and our customers. In other regions, we are following local processes, which may include time for consultation with employee representative bodies and possibly result in longer timelines to communicate with impacted employees.

☆ At Microsoft, Charlie Bell's shackles are finally off. Watch out, Amazon.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Many in the industry, including current and former Microsoft and Amazon executives, wonder whether there's a better job for Bell. It could get intense, with Bell going toe-to-toe with Jassy and getting into disputes with Selipsky. "There were two different sets of security products and actually different security organizations that were securing the products for Microsoft," Bell said. While Bell has imported some processes from Amazon, he has introduced them with a "Microsoft flavor," by using Microsoft productivity tools, one person said. "So many decisions get made at Microsoft by looking at PowerPoints, and sometimes those PowerPoints lack details," Rashid, the former Microsoft and Amazon executive, said.

☆ Leaked Microsoft documents show layoffs coming to Charlie Bell's security organization on Monday
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Microsoft is planning layoffs in Charlie Bell's security organization, according to documents viewed by Insider. A person familiar with the plans said the cuts would affect hundreds of employees in the US. Microsoft is planning to conduct layoffs within Charlie Bell's security organization on Monday, according to documents viewed by Insider. Although, Bell's unit notified some employees in Europe and India about potential layoffs earlier this month. Security is intended to be a critical investment area for Microsoft, particularly since Bell's hiring, but those plans appear to have been stunted by the economic downturn.

☆ Leaked Amazon all-hands messages suggest 'single-digit' percentage cuts to 180,000-employee AWS, which still means at least 1,800 could get laid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon's latest round of layoffs will include "a small, single-digit percentage" of cloud employees. Employees hoped a cloud unit all-hands would shed some light, but it provided little information. Amazon's latest round of layoffs will include "a small, single-digit percentage" of the employees in the company's massive Amazon Web Services cloud unit, according to leaked internal messages and employees present at the unit's all-hands meeting. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Monday announced plans to cut 9,000 employees, on top of the 18,000 layoffs the company announced earlier this year. Employees hoped a cloud unit all-hands would shed light on the plans, but according to internal Slack messages and employees present on the call, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky revealed little beyond saying a single-digit percentage of the cloud unit would be impacted.

☆ Amazon's cloud business reports 20% growth in fourth quarter, missing estimates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Web Services leads the cloud infrastructure market, with almost 39% share in 2021, according to estimates from industry researcher Gartner. Revenue growth at AWS has generally decelerated since 2015 as the segment has become larger and competition has picked up. In the fourth quarter, AWS generated $21.4 billion in revenue, representing 14% of Amazon's total revenue. Also in the quarter, AWS announced the availability of data center regions in Spain and Switzerland. WATCH: Amazon Web Services revenue growth will slow down more in 2023, says Satori Fund's Niles

☆ Amazon to report quarterly results after market close
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon will report fourth-quarter earnings after the market close on Thursday. The company warned in its most recent earnings report that fourth-quarter revenue would rise just 2% to 8% from a year earlier. Amazon Web Services is expected to show slowing growth during the fourth quarter as businesses softened their spending in an effort to cut costs. One bright spot could be Amazon's advertising business, which is expected to post solid revenue growth during the quarter. Apple and Alphabet also report results after the bell on Thursday, wrapping up earnings season among the highest-valued tech companies.

☆ AWS CEO pitches cloud as a cost-saver despite rising customer concerns about runaway cloud bills
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Ellen Thomas | Sage Lazzaro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky is pitching cloud as a cost-saver, while customers increasingly feel the burden of runaway cloud costs. But for customers, cloud bills are top of mind and putting pressure on their balance sheets, especially during the economic downturn. Ternary's client base is mostly big companies that need to manage their cloud costs generally because of their size, he said. It's easy for cloud costs to get out of control for big companies that have a lot of data and workloads in the cloud. But more and more, Ternary is getting interest from smaller companies looking to lower their cloud bills, he said.

☆ Amazon's cloud unit faces cost-sensitive customers as economic fears mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Peter Kern, CEO of online travel company Expedia Group , sees the cloud as an area where his company can reduce its fixed costs. Amazon leads the market in cloud computing, with an estimated 39% share. Selipsky said that moving IT jobs to the cloud could help budget-strapped organizations save money, citing customers Agco and Carrier Global . It offers Graviton computing instances based on energy-efficient Arm-based chips, a less expensive alternative to instances using standard AMD and Intel processors. He said AT&T 's DirecTV unit was able to eliminate 20% of computing costs by adopting current-generation Graviton chips.

☆ AWS CEO Adam Selipsky on impact of slowing economy, cloud consumption
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailAWS CEO Adam Selipsky on impact of slowing economy, cloud consumptionAmazon Web Services' annual cloud conference is back in full swing in Las Vegas for the first time since the onset of the pandemic and CNBC TechCheck's Jon Fortt sits down exclusively with AWS CEO Adam Selipsky. He says that although AWS is in a temporary hiring freeze, they are absorbing spikes in the cost of energy and tech labor, making the case that its scale and experience in cloud technologies make it a port in the storm of a volatile economy.

☆ Wall Street's most important consultant might be its cloud provider
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Bianca Chan explored this trend with a piece on how cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are reimagining themselves as business consultants. Many of the biggest cloud providers have stood up teams focused on interfacing with the C-suite to advise them on how a move to the cloud can be an opportunity to overhaul things. It's not hard to see how this could end up being big business for the cloud providers. Cloud providers still have a long way to go to be a real threat to consultants, but there is potential there. Click here to read more about how cloud providers are becoming the new-age consultants for Wall Street.

☆ Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Blackstone, Carvana, Netflix & more
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley adds Blackstone to the financials' finest list Morgan Stanley added the investment bank and private equity firm to its top pick list and said it sees a compelling entry point. Bank of America downgrades Carvana to neutral from buy Bank of America said it has "liquidity and cash burn concerns." "We are reinstating coverage of XPO with a Neutral rating following a period of restriction. Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America attended Amazon's AWS Re:Invent conference and said Amazon Web Services ecosystem "remains strong." Morgan Stanley reiterates Lowe's as overweight Morgan Stanley said the home improvement retailer is in a "strong fundamental position."

Organizations: ~$

☆ Public-cloud providers are reimagining themselves as consultants. Here's how AWS, Azure and Google Cloud are helping finance firms use the tech to rethink their business.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In turn, public-cloud providers are reimagining themselves as business consultants. Wall Street firms are embracing the cloud for everything from research to risk and marketing. Cloud providers are building teams to interface with execsFinancial firms making the jump to the cloud are thinking beyond their IT divisions. Some of the largest Wall Street shops are taking the opportunity to rethink how they run their businesses entirely. Wall Street uses cloud to hit the reset buttonSelipsky's comments ring true on Wall Street, where cloud projects can have firm-wide ripple effects.

Buying other companies is one option to help maintain its historical 20%-plus annual revenue growth, a person familiar with Amazon's deal process said. While Amazon doesn't necessarily prey on companies in trouble, the company is extremely price disciplined, the person familiar with Amazon's deal process told Insider. Bertucci has been a part of some of Amazon's largest transactions, including leading the MGM and One Medical deals. According to the person familiar with Amazon's deal process, Amazon only brings in investment banks when acquisitions reach roughly the $1 billion mark. Indeed, the One Medical deal alone could have netted Goldman and Morgan Stanley, which repped One Medical, in the tens of millions in fees.

☆ Amazon remains top pick at UBS — and in our portfolio — despite FedEx’s alarming guidance
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

We are particularly encouraged by this analysis, because investors out there may end-up wrongly interpreting FedEx (FDX)'s terrible guidance and economic outlook as a warning about Amazon's business. Analysts are now scrambling to assess whether the problems that FedEx described in its business and the global economy at-large will slow Amazon's e-commerce. Since there are many differences between FedEx and Amazon's business, we are sticking with our long-term thesis on Amazon. Bottom line We like UBS' work here as many on Wall Street clearly extrapolated FedEx's guidance to mean Amazon's e-commerce business is struggling — when, in actuality, it is not. If consumers roll back their discretionary spending, which Amazon's e-commerce business relies on, profits from AWS can help offset changes in consumer spending behavior.

☆ What Cramer is watching Tuesday — hot inflation slams stocks, recent Apple rally fizzles
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-13 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

BMO goes to market perform from outperform (hold from buy) but raises its price target $435 per share from $420. Wells Fargo raises price target on Clorox (CLX) to $130 per share from $120; but keeps an underweight (sell) rating. Wells Fargo cuts price target on Dow Inc. (DOW) to $60 per share from $70, saying polyethylene pricing is coming down. JPMorgan calls Robinhood (HOOD) August numbers "uninspiring," keeps underweight (sell) rating and a $7-per-share price target. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ Watch the full interview with Amazon Web Services CEO Adam Selipsky
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch the full interview with Amazon Web Services CEO Adam SelipskyIn Monday's interview for "Mad Money" with Jim Cramer, Selipsky detailed steps that Amazon, the entire company, is taking to be net-zero carbon by 2040.

Search resuls for: "Adam Selipsky"

20 mentions found