Exclusive: AWS makes its AI power play in Vegas
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Amazon is using this week's AWS re:Invent conference to assert itself in an AI race that suddenly looks much bigger than OpenAI.
Why it matters: Last week's news cycle was dominated by Google staking a claim that it has pulled ahead of OpenAI.
- Amazon now wants to signal that it belongs in that same tier, with its own models and chips and the world's largest cloud.
The big picture: Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman tells Axios that AWS is increasingly the cloud where customers are putting real production workloads due to its combination of capabilities and cost effectiveness.
- "A year ago, there were questions about whether we'd missed the wave, but now, most people are building their production systems in AWS because of what we've built over the past couple of years," Garman told Axios. "People are now realizing that Amazon has a great platform for AI."
- Garman's comments come as the company opens its Las Vegas conference, where it's expected to unveil new AI models and infrastructure.
What they're saying: The industry itself is at an inflection point, Garman said, moving from summarization and content creation to transforming broader workflows by taking on repetitive tasks.
- "It's not slowing down anytime soon. I think there was fear a year ago that maybe the model capabilities were plateauing," Garman said. "I think that is not the case anymore."
Between the lines: AWS is touting a trio of strengths to convince customers — and Wall Street — that it's at the AI frontier:
- Amazon hosts Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, plus Amazon's own models — giving enterprises an array of choices that rivals sometimes lack.
- Trainium and Inferentia — Amazon's custom chips — are designed to help AWS compete on cost.
- Garman has also pointed to AWS's deep integration with enterprise systems, security policies and compliance requirements.
Yes, but: AWS is often still missing from the conversations around the latest and greatest AI.
- Microsoft remains the default AI cloud for many CIOs because of its OpenAI partnership and early Copilot momentum.
- Although Amazon has been beefing up its internal models, it lacks a flagship frontier model directly comparable to GPT-5 or Gemini 3 Pro.
- The success of Trainium and other Amazon-designed chips depends on convincing customers to switch from Nvidia.
By the numbers: While AWS remains the leading name in the broader cloud computing race, its rivals are growing faster.
- Last quarter AWS saw its business grow 20%. Compare that with 34% for Google Cloud and 40% for Microsoft's Azure.
The bottom line: AWS dominates cloud, but is still working to prove its position at the AI frontier.
We'll have more from Garman in Wednesday's AI+ newsletter. Sign up here.
