Amazon has hit $2 trillion in market capitalization for the first time, driven by growing interest in artificial intelligence. Amazon shares rose 3.9% to close at $193.61 on Wednesday, propelling the company's market capitalization past the $2 trillion mark.
This puts Amazon in the company of technology giants such as Alphabet, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Apple. Amazon's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), posted its highest annual revenue growth in the first quarter, helping to lift its stock price. Microsoft, Apple and NVIDIA are the only three companies in the world to have crossed the $3 trillion mark so far.
Strategic cost-cutting and restructuring moves, as well as a focus on AI, are also boosting investor confidence.
Alexa's “AI”
Amazon is planning a major update to its voice assistant Alexa, transforming it into a smarter personal assistant to better compete with AI chatbots from Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.
Dubbed “Project Banyan” internally, the effort marks the most significant change to Alexa since its debut with the Echo speaker line in 2014. A key feature of this overhaul is the integration of generative conversational AI, a technology that will enable Alexa to understand and respond to complex prompts and questions in a more human-like way.
As Reuters reports, Amazon has dubbed its upgraded assistant “Remarkable Alexa.” CEO Andy Jassy is personally invested in the project and has internally targeted August for the release of the new version. In an April letter to shareholders, Jassy hinted at these changes, promising a “smarter, more capable Alexa.”
