Amazon Com Stock Price, News & Analysis

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has launched its new AWS Asia Pacific Region in New Zealand, marking a significant expansion of its cloud infrastructure. The company plans to invest over NZ$7.5 billion in New Zealand's digital infrastructure, supporting an average of more than 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs annually and contributing approximately NZ$10.8 billion to New Zealand's GDP.

The new region consists of three Availability Zones and is designed to be sovereign-by-design. Amazon has committed to training 100,000 people in cloud skills in New Zealand, with over 50,000 already trained. The infrastructure will be powered by renewable energy through a partnership with Mercury NZ, supporting Amazon's commitment to reaching net-zero carbon by 2040.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced that LPL Financial, a leading U.S. wealth management firm supporting over 29,000 financial advisors, has expanded its use of Amazon Business for nationwide business purchasing needs. Amazon Business, which generates $35 billion in annualized gross sales and serves over 8 million customers worldwide, provides LPL advisors access to office supplies, IT equipment, and business essentials through a streamlined procurement platform.

The partnership leverages Amazon Business's comprehensive B2B platform, offering competitive pricing, vast product selection, and advanced features including multi-user accounts, custom approval workflows, and tax-exempt purchasing. The platform serves 97 of Fortune 100 companies and utilizes AI-powered analytics to optimize purchasing decisions and reduce costs.

Brainbase Labs has launched Kafka Workforce, an enterprise platform built on Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) that enables companies to deploy specialized AI employees. The platform allows enterprises to onboard AI workers in less than an hour, equipped with their own computer systems and communication channels including email, phone, and Slack.

The solution leverages AWS's cloud infrastructure and AI services, including foundation models on Amazon Bedrock and Anthropic's Claude Sonnet. Kafka Workforce differentiates itself by offering highly specialized AI employees that can be customized for specific enterprise roles, moving beyond common positions to address unique organizational needs.

The platform builds upon Brainbase's previous release of Kafka, their generalist AI agent that achieved state-of-the-art performance on the GAIA Level 3 benchmark. Each AI employee comes with access to a coding environment, persistent file system, browser access, and over 1,000 enterprise applications.

Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) IMDbPro and ReFrame report reveals that 45 out of 100 most popular TV series in 2024-25 achieved gender-balanced production, marking a 6.5% increase from the previous year. The study found that ReFrame Stamped series attract an average of 1.33 million more viewers than non-Stamped shows.

Key findings show that women, nonbinary, and trans directors helmed 35.8% of episodes, up from 33.4% last year. Streaming platforms now dominate with 85% of Top 100 series, while network series dropped to 5%. Amazon MGM Studios and Netflix led in gender-balanced hiring, with over 50% of their releases earning the ReFrame Stamp.

Notable improvements were seen in crew roles, with unit production managers reaching 33%, first assistant directors 46%, and directors of photography 26% representation for underrepresented genders.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced that Amazon Business has reached a significant milestone, now serving over 8 million organizations globally. The B2B platform, celebrating its 10th year, has achieved $35 billion in annualized gross sales and serves 97 of Fortune 100 companies.

The platform has expanded its selection by 25% year-over-year, with products from small business sellers growing by 80% globally. U.S. organizations saved over $150 million through quantity discounts in the first half of the year, with global small business customers saving more than $70 million last year. Business Prime members saved over $750 million in shipping fees globally, with 70% of U.S. Business Prime orders delivered same or next day.

Inovalon has expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) to enhance its Converged Record Review™ solution, addressing new CMS requirements for annual Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) audits in Medicare Advantage contracts starting 2026.

The enhanced solution leverages Amazon Comprehend Medical's NLP and ML capabilities to help health plans prepare for RADV audits by identifying documentation gaps, removing unsupported diagnoses, and streamlining chart reviews. The system integrates with Inovalon's Converged Risk Surveillance Analytics™ to validate diagnoses and ensure accurate reimbursements.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced a major expansion of its grocery delivery service, now offering perishable groceries alongside regular products for Same-Day Delivery in over 1,000 cities and towns, with plans to reach 2,300 locations by end of 2025. Prime members receive free delivery on orders over $25, while non-members pay $12.99.

The expansion integrates thousands of fresh items including produce, meat, seafood, dairy, and frozen foods into Amazon's existing logistics network. Early adoption data shows strong customer engagement, with grocery items like strawberries now among top 5 bestsellers. Amazon's grocery and household essentials sales exceeded $100 billion in 2024, excluding Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh revenues.

The service complements Amazon's existing grocery offerings through Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, featuring temperature-controlled fulfillment and six-point quality checks for fresh items.

Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced the general availability of Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS), enabling customers to seamlessly run and scale VMware workloads on AWS. The service allows organizations to use VMware Cloud Foundation without application re-platforming or re-factoring.

Amazon EVS provides customers the flexibility to either self-manage their environment or work with AWS Partner Network experts. The service is now available in six regions including US East, US West, Europe, and Asia Pacific, with more regions planned. Key features include VMware license portability, familiar VMware tools integration, and access to AWS's comprehensive suite of services including analytics, databases, and AI capabilities.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Brimstone have announced successful test results of Brimstone's lower-carbon Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) for concrete construction. The third-party tests confirmed that Brimstone's OPC meets ASTM C150 requirements and performs comparably to conventional materials used in Amazon buildings.

The companies have signed a commercial agreement for Amazon to reserve annual volumes of Brimstone's OPC and supplementary cementitious materials from its upcoming plant. Further comprehensive testing is planned for 2025-2026 to evaluate durability, sulfate resistance, and aggregate reactivity across various concrete mix designs using materials from Brimstone's Oakland facility.