Friday, February 7, 2020

Amazon Invested $15 Billion and Launched 225 New Tools and Services in 2019 to Help Worldwide Third-Party Sellers – Mostly Small and Medium-Sized Businesses – Grow and Thrive

American small and medium-sized businesses selling in Amazon’s stores had a record-breaking year, with more than 15,000 businesses surpassing $1 million in sales in 2019 – double-digit growth since last year

Nearly 25,000 American small and medium-sized businesses surpassed $500,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores in 2019

Third-party sellers sold more than 700 million items in Amazon’s U.S. store that shipped with Prime Free One-Day Delivery or faster in 2019

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2020-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it launched more than 225 tools and services in 2019 to help third-party sellers – mostly small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) – succeed in its stores. The new tools and services were part of a more than $15 billion global investment in third-party seller success last year. As a result, American SMBs selling in Amazon’s stores had a record-breaking year, with more than 15,000 businesses surpassing $1 million in sales and nearly 25,000 surpassing $500,000 in sales in 2019. Worldwide, nearly 225,000 SMBs surpassed $100,000 in sales in Amazon’s stores in 2019, up from nearly 200,000 in 2018, and more than 140,000 in 2017.

Amazon also invested billions of dollars in Prime Free One-Day Delivery last year. Driven by Prime

Amazon Expands in Santa Barbara and Announces Plans to Create 150 Tech Jobs in Central California

New 48,000 square foot tech office is located downtown and has space for more than 275 employees

With a range of positions already open, the company is looking to double its local workforce in the coming years to support local tech teams

Amazon has already created over 45,000 jobs and invested more than $34.5 billion in California since 2010, including infrastructure and compensation

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2020-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced an expansion of the company’s workforce in Santa Barbara, California and plans to create 150 additional tech jobs in the city. With plans to double its workforce, the company has opened a new 48,000 square foot office for Alexa tech teams located in downtown Santa Barbara. Amazon has created more than 45,000 full-time jobs in California since 2010 and invested over $34.5 billion in the state, including infrastructure and compensation to our employees.

“We have been able to hire great talent in Santa Barbara and look forward to doubling our workforce

Carrier Selects AWS as its Preferred Cloud Provider to Drive Digital Transformation

Global provider of HVAC, refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation technologies will rely on AWS to streamline operations, increase pace of innovation, and deliver on potential of more sustainable, more intelligent buildings

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2020-- Today, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced that Carrier, a leader in heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, refrigeration, fire, security, and building automation technologies, has chosen AWS as its preferred cloud provider. Carrier is moving up to 70 percent of its 4,000 servers and 996 applications away from legacy servers and databases to AWS, reducing IT infrastructure costs while also positioning the company to innovate and deliver more products and services to its customers around the world. In addition, Carrier will use AWS data warehouse, analytics, and machine learning (ML) services to identify efficiencies in its manufacturing processes and supply chains, and AWS Internet of Things (IoT) services to underpin a new line of intelligent, networked products and services for the home, workplace, and refrigerated logistics chain. Carrier, part of United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), expects to become a standalone public company in the first half of 2020 and plans to leverage AWS to drive its digital transformation and lead the next era of growth and expansion in the industry.

Carrier plans to build its data lake on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and use AWS

Amazon Announces First Iowa Fulfillment Center

New 645,000 square-foot site in the city of Bondurant to create 1,000 new, full-time jobs

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2020-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced plans to open its first fulfillment center in the state of Iowa in the city of Bondurant. The site, which is anticipated to launch in late 2020, will create 1,000 new full-time jobs with industry leading pay and comprehensive benefits starting on day one.

“We are delighted to be opening our first Iowa fulfillment center in the city of Bondurant and look forward to creating 1,000 new, full-time jobs with Amazon’s $15 minimum wage and industry-leading benefits,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment. “The site will help us continue to serve customers with great delivery options and we appreciate the strong support from local and state leaders.”

“Amazon’s announcement is jet-fuel for Iowa’s future. Amazon’s investment in East Polk County,

Amazon Announces First-Ever ‘Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Awards,’ Awarding Seven All-Star Teachers $25,000 Prize Packages for Exemplar Work with Students Across the Country

Awards recognize teachers and their schools inspiring students in underserved and underrepresented communities to build skills and careers in computer science and teachers with a focus on promoting diversity and inclusion in computer science

All 2,400 Amazon Future Engineer high school and robotics teachers can be nominated and apply at AmazonFutureEngineer.com from February 13th to March 12th

Seven award recipients will be chosen from across the country – two high school teachers from the Eastern U.S., two in the West, two in the Central region, and one Amazon Future Engineer Robotics Grant teacher

Amazon Future Engineer is a four-part childhood-to-career program intended to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to try computer science

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2020-- Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced the first-ever Amazon Future Engineer Teacher of the Year Awards to honor and recognize seven all-star teachers and their schools working diligently to help students in underserved and underrepresented communities build life-changing skills to propel their futures in computer science–with prize packages valued at more than $25,000. The more than 2,400 teachers participating in the Amazon Future Engineer Program at over 2,100 schools nationwide can be nominated or apply at AmazonFutureEngineer.com from February 13th to March 12th. Amazon Future Engineer inspires, educates, and prepares hundreds of thousands of students from underserved and underrepresented communities each year in the field of computer science. Amazon Future Engineer teachers are the champions of the program – focusing especially on promoting diversity and inclusion in their computer science classrooms and beyond.

Award recipients will be chosen based on a variety of criteria which includes their commitment to