![\"Amazon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774676178_631_gettyimages-2249059883.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSeattle, Wash.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Matt Garman helps make your online life \u2013 your Starbucks order, your Netflix binge, your Pinterest browsing\u2013 possible.\n <\/p>\n
\n As the CEO of Amazon\u2019s cloud computing division, he plays a major role in deciding how to deploy the computing resources needed to drive the internet \u2013 a responsibility that could soon include shaping the future of AI.\n <\/p>\n
\n Few people know the business as well as Garman, who sat down with CNN at Amazon\u2019s Seattle headquarters in mid-March. As an intern, he wrote the paper defining Amazon Web Service\u2019s business strategy. And he was AWS\u2019 first product manager when he joined Amazon full time in 2006, helping companies pivot to the web in the internet\u2019s early days.\n <\/p>\n
\n Twenty years after its March 2006 launch, AWS has become crucial for just about any company that relies on internet-powered tools. When AWS goes down, parts of society grind to a halt.\n <\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s big business for Amazon, raking in $128.7 billion in sales last year. But AI has upended the tech industry. Amazon\u2019s already making major changes, like ratcheting up AI infrastructure spending to an expected $200 billion this year and axing tens of thousands of jobs.\n <\/p>\n
\n Garman explained why Amazon views the moves as necessary. The downsizing is speeding up daily operations, and there\u2019s enough pent-up AI demand to keep Amazon\u2019s cloud tools busy for the next five to 10 years even if the tech stops advancing, he said.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Back when AWS launched, he said, \u201cwe had to explain what even the concept of cloud computing was, and why it was a thing, and why it\u2019s something that Amazon would be involved in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Those conversations feel familiar again.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cJust fast forward to where we are today in AI, I think (it\u2019s) actually much the same challenges,\u201d Garman said. \u201cA lot of people are going to have to think about how they do work differently.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n AWS launched to provide virtual IT infrastructure and servers to businesses.\n <\/p>\n
\n The pitch was simple: Amazon would handle backend technical operations so that companies could focus on their products and customers. But it was a risky bet for a company that rose to fame reshaping the retail industry.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re very comfortable being misunderstood,\u201d Amazon founder Jeff Bezos told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2006.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Amazonians still embrace that thinking today, Jeff Barr, chief evangelist for AWS and a 23-year veteran of the company, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Walking through the reception area on my way to meet Garman, I passed a barista serving special lattes celebrating AWS\u2019 20th birthday.\n <\/p>\n \n We\u2019re greeted by a disembodied voice over an intercom asking who we\u2019re here to see on the restricted floor where Garman awaits. As I\u2019m escorted to one of his personal conference rooms, I see a physical sign of AWS\u2019s massive reach: a shelf adorned with autographed football helmets \u2013 the NFL is one of AWS\u2019 biggest clients, a testament to how critical it\u2019s become to life both online and off.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s a long way from the conversations about internet storage in a Seattle pub<\/a> that gave rise to AWS. Garman tells me even his own parents struggled to understand what cloud computing was when he described his job to them back then.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201c(It) was super hard to explain to them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my dad\u2019s like, \u2018Is it like the guy who comes to my office and fixes the printer?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But AWS eventually became indispensable to web entrepreneurs \u2013 and now its future depends on doing the same for AI companies.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon is heavily involved with some of AI\u2019s biggest players, like OpenAI and Anthropic, investing billions directly, helping distribute their services and providing tech for training their models. It\u2019s also developed custom chips for AI tasks.\n <\/p>\n \n But AWS also wants to be vital for all companies through its Bedrock platform, which Amazon says more than 100,000 companies use to build their own AI apps and agents. Just as AWS\u2019 early products allowed companies to access storage and computing power without making huge infrastructure investments, Amazon\u2019s newer tools are making AI models more accessible, the company says.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon is the largest cloud provider, putting it in a strong position to cash in on AI-related surges in computing demand. But rivals Microsoft and Google are eager to catch up.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon\u2019s share of the cloud market dipped from 39% in 2023 to 37.7% in 2024, according to market research firm Gartner.\n <\/p>\n \n Google\u2019s cloud is currently attractive to startups because it\u2019s slightly easier to use and get started with, according to Jacob Colker, managing director of the Seattle-based A12 Incubator, which helps AI startups build their businesses. Plus, Google has a more generous credit program for young companies.\n <\/p>\n \n AWS said it has provided more than $8 billion in credits to 350,000 new companies through its startup program AWS Activate. It also says more than 65% of billion-dollar startups reported in October by Pitchbook, a database that tracks startup funding and other financial data, are building on AWS.\n <\/p>\n \n And Colker said the tide could shift at any moment.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe pace of innovation, obviously, is breakneck in the world of tech, and I think that\u2019s equally true for a lot of the cloud providers,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon\u2019s monolithic data centers and millions of miles of fiber optic cables underpin the internet. But it\u2019s the decisions made inside buildings like the glassy Amazon Reinvent tower in downtown Seattle that help determine Amazon\u2019s future \u2013 and that of millions of other companies, if things go Amazon\u2019s way.\n <\/p>\n \n Within its walls on an overcast Seattle afternoon, Garman and I discuss one of the biggest questions Wall Street has for Amazon: the $200 billion it expects to spend on capital expenditures this year related to AI infrastructure. The number was more than $50 billion higher than analysts\u2019 expectations and the $131.8 billion Amazon spent on property and equipment in 2025.\n <\/p>\n \n Spending on AI has become so large that market research firm Gartner now categorizes companies like Amazon as \u201cdigital nation states\u201d since they \u201ccontrol enough land, power, water (and) talent to actually rival countries,\u201d said analyst Nicole Greene.\n <\/p>\n \n Where is that money going?\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is not a secret, it\u2019s data centers and servers,\u201d Garman said.\n <\/p>\n \n The sky-high spending has fueled concerns about an AI bubble<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Tech giants insist AI demand is so feverish that they\u2019re scrambling for compute power. Critics want to know when companies are going to see a return on those investments.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon\u2019s spending spree isn\u2019t its only eyebrow-raising move recently. The company slashed roughly 30,000 jobs across two rounds of layoffs \u2013 one in October<\/a> and another in January<\/a> \u2013 to move faster as AI evolves, it claims.\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon previously said<\/a> AI advancements didn\u2019t drive most of the cuts, although CEO Andy Jassy said in June<\/a> that the company will need \u201cfewer people\u201d as AI changes work. Garman said AI is playing a bigger role in operations, like supply chain planning, managing data center resources and, of course, software development.\n <\/p>\n \n AI coding tools that allow programmers to build their own personal workforces of AI agents are upending the software industry. Projects that would have taken two to three years at AWS are now being done in a matter of months with small teams, Garman said.\n <\/p>\n \n In fact, Garman said AWS\u2019 teams are now \u201cbuilding at a rate that we haven\u2019t seen for many years.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Amazon\u2019s moves may have struck a nerve because they hit on two of the biggest AI-driven concerns to emerge over the past year: the technology\u2019s impact on jobs and whether it\u2019s creating a bubble.\n <\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774676178_627_gettyimages-2161850644.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774676179_107_gettyimages-2263283442.jpg\")
<\/p>\n