Amazon’s $1 billion industrial innovation fund is to step up investments in companies that combine artificial intelligence and robotics, as the ecommerce giant seeks to drive efficiencies across its logistics network.
Franziska Bossart, head of the corporate venture capital arm that was set up in 2022, told the Financial Times that “generative AI holds a lot of promise for robotics and automation” and is an area “we are going to focus on this year.”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Amazon’s $1 billion industrial innovation fund is to step up investments in companies that combine artificial intelligence and robotics, as the ecommerce giant seeks to drive efficiencies across its logistics network.
Franziska Bossart, head of the corporate venture capital arm that was set up in 2022, told the Financial Times that “generative AI holds a lot of promise for robotics and automation” and is an area “we are going to focus on this year.”
The fund’s search for new investments in generative AI groups comes as Big Tech companies pour billions into developing the technology, which can produce humanlike text, images, and code in seconds.
The industrial innovation fund is seeking to invest in start-ups that can support the ecommerce group’s aims of becoming “more efficient, safer for our associates, and increase the speed of delivery to our customers.” Bossart said.
While Amazon’s push to use AI to increase automation may raise concerns among the company’s thousands of delivery and warehouse workers worldwide, the declaration that its investment arm will deploy more capital this year may cheer tech start-ups.
Amazon’s desire for greater automation and efficiency across its warehouses and supply chain is also part of a broader strategy to boost margins following a period of heavy investment in the logistics network during the pandemic.
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