This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Investors are turning their attention to Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) after a shareholder proposal called on the company to review whether its contracts with Israel’s military and the US Department of Homeland Security align with its responsible AI policies. Filed by American Baptist Home Mission Societies and reviewed by Bloomberg, the nonbinding resolution asks Amazon’s board to identify possible instances where internal standards may not match the sale of artificial intelligence and cloud services. The proposal, which could be voted on at Amazon’s annual meeting in May, highlights potential legal and reputational risks tied to those government relationships. Amazon declined to comment on the filing.
The issue is emerging as major cloud providers face growing pressure over government and military ties. Microsoft, Amazon’s Seattle-area rival, has encountered protests from employees and activists over its relationship with the Israeli military during the war in Gaza, and removed certain workloads after reports that its servers stored recordings of phone calls intercepted from Palestinian territories. Amazon Web Services has not experienced a similar level of internal unrest, but it has been periodically targeted alongside Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) for its role in Project Nimbus, a cloud platform built for Israeli government agencies. Earlier this year, Amazon said it fired an employee who criticized that engagement internally and distributed fliers at its headquarters, citing policy violations.
The shareholder resolution also focuses on AWS hosting a biometric and biographic information database used by DHS, citing accusations that some units arbitrarily detained people and violated privacy, free speech and due process rights. Thirty investors holding at least $59 million in Amazon shares backed the proposal by the co-filing deadline, according to Investor Advocates for Social Justice, which coordinated the effort. While shareholder resolutions are nonbinding and rarely win majority support, they are often viewed as a signal of investor sentiment that could, over time, influence corporate policies, as Amazon has previously adjusted governance and workforce practices following similar pressure.