Amazon Web Services launched in 2006, which Adam Selipsky describes as pioneering cloud computing.
“when AWS, uh, launched in 2006 and pioneered the cloud, all of a sudden, there was this, uh, illusion of infinite capacity.”
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Adam Selipsky
1 episodes · 22 quoted claims
Adam Selipsky estimated that roughly 10% of global IT spending had moved to the cloud, and later put it at 10-15%.
“I'd estimate probably somewhere in the realm of 10% of IT has moved to the cloud”
Adam Selipsky said over 80% of the world's unicorns, startups worth over $1 billion, run on Amazon Web Services.
“over 80% of the world's unicorns, uh, run on AWS, and it's a great, great privilege to work with all of those innovators.”
Amazon Web Services operated 32 independent infrastructure regions worldwide.
“So we have 32 independent infrastructure regions around the world, uh, many in the US and Canada”
Each Amazon Web Services region has at least three availability zones, which are built to fail independently of each other.
“E- each one has at least 3 availability zones per region, and that's a really, really important set of concepts”
Adam Selipsky said Amazon Web Services was over a $90 billion a year revenue business.
“we're we're over a 90 billion dollar a year revenue organization”
Amazon Web Services says it has lowered prices more than 120 times in the 17 years since launch.
“We've lowered prices over 120 times, uh, in the past 17 years, uh, since we launched.”
Jeff Bezos publicly called AWS's 5-7 year head start over competitors the largest gift in business history, according to Adam Selipsky.
“our founder, Jeff Bezos, has actually publicly called that 5 to 7 year head start the largest gift in business history.”
Adam Selipsky cited AWS's role in controlling NASA's Mars Rover as evidence that mission-critical workloads run in the cloud.
“controlling, uh, NASA's Mars Rover, you know, SUV-sized vehicles on the surface of Mars”
Anthropic uses Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider, and Amazon has invested in the company.
“Anthropic, um, now uses AWS as its, uh, primary, uh, cloud provider”
At the time of the interview, Anthropic's latest model was Claude 2, which Adam Selipsky called a leading-edge model.
“They're now on Claude 2, which is a a a really leading edge model”
Amazon pledged to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, which Adam Selipsky said is 10 years ahead of the Paris Accords goal.
“net zero carbon across all of Amazon retail, AWS, everything, uh, by 2040, uh, which is 10 years ahead of the Paris Accords”
Over 400 other organizations had signed Amazon's Climate Pledge, according to Adam Selipsky.
“We have over 400 other organizations, including many large companies, who have signed on to the climate pledge”
Adam Selipsky said Amazon was already over 90% powered by renewable energy, with a goal of 100% by 2025.
“the good news is we are already over 90% renewable energy powered across all of Amazon”
Adam Selipsky said AWS's in-house Graviton chip uses 60% less power than equivalent chips.
“Our our Graviton-based, uh, um, uh, chip, um, actually consumes 60% less power than equivalent, uh, equivalent chips that our customers use.”
Adam Selipsky was due to attend the UK government's AI Safety Summit in the week of the interview.
“Later this week, I will be in the in the UK at the, uh, AI Safety Summit”
Amazon has 16 leadership principles, which Adam Selipsky calls the company's operating system.
“we have 16 leadership principles that they're, uh, not just in some manual, they're alive and well.”
Adam Selipsky said AWS was founded partly because Amazon wanted its teams to move faster by sharing a common layer of infrastructure services.
“one of the reasons why AWS was founded was because Amazon wanted to move faster, and they wanted to create the shared layer of infrastructure services”
Amazon's two-pizza team rule holds that a team should be no larger than two pizzas can feed.
“wherever possible, you should have a team no larger than can be fed with 2 pizzas.”
Amazon runs most internal meetings around a narrative document of up to six pages that attendees read silently instead of using PowerPoint.
“it could be up to 6 pages, no longer than 6 pages, and when we come into a meeting, the first thing we do is say hello, and then we all sit down and read.”
Before building any significant new service or feature, Amazon writes a full press release and FAQ, known as PRFAQ or working backwards.
“we'll actually write a full press release along with a full FAQ.”
Adam Selipsky argues that Amazon's customer obsession is about deep understanding and decision-making, not emotional attachment.
“Although I think loving your customers is a good thing. But at Amazon, and I I think the reason why, uh, we actually are so customer-obsessed”