The company revealed the plans at its Delivering the Future event in Dartford, England, where it also introduced an upgraded version of Proteus, its autonomous warehouse robot.

The new Proteus can move across warehouse floors rather than being limited to loading and dock areas. Amazon said employees can now give the robot instructions using everyday language instead of technical commands.

“You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing,” said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics.

Like the current version, Proteus is designed to handle physically demanding work, including moving heavy carts over long distances. Amazon explained that the upgraded robot is being tested in its laboratories and is expected to begin operating in Europe during the first half of 2027.

Alongside Proteus, Amazon also highlighted other robotics technologies that it plans to expand across its European network. These include Vulcan, the company’s first robot with a sense of touch, and STARK, a robotic tote-handling system that works alongside employees by picking full totes from conveyors and placing them onto carts.

STARK was first tested in Barcelona and Amazon plans to deploy it at 15 sites across Europe by 2027.

The warehouse robots rollout is part of an investment programme worth more than €10 billion, Amazon said the funding will be used to expand and modernise fulfilment centres across Europe while supporting long-term growth in the region.

The company expects the expansion to create 25,000 additional jobs across its European fulfilment network over the coming years.

Amazon also announced a fresh commitment to workforce development, pledging $1 billion to its Career Choice programme by 2030. The initiative funds education and training for employees seeking careers in areas such as cyber security, software development, logistics, renewable energy and mechatronics.

More than 300,000 employees have participated in the programme globally, including 30,000 in the United Kingdom.

On the delivery side, Amazon said it will open more than 25 Sub Same-Day Delivery sites across Europe this year. The facilities bring storage, fulfilment and final delivery operations together in one location, allowing customers to place orders later in the day and still receive them within hours.

The company said the network will expand to locations including Coventry in the UK and Nürnberg in Germany.

Amazon Now, the retailer’s ultra-fast delivery service for groceries and household essentials, is also set for further growth. The service, which promises delivery in 30 minutes or less, is already available in parts of London and will expand to Manchester and Birmingham later this year.

In another update for European customers, Amazon said its Add to Delivery feature will launch in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France later this year. The service allows Prime members to add items to an existing order without completing a separate checkout process or paying extra delivery charges.

The company is also strengthening its grocery offering. Customers in parts of central and east London can now combine fresh food items, including fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products, with other Amazon purchases for same-day delivery.

Amazon said the investment drive follows a record year in Europe. The company invested more than €60 billion across the region in 2025, its largest annual investment in Europe to date.

The retailer also provided an update on its sustainability efforts, revealing that more than 50,000 electric delivery vans are now operating across the United States, Europe and India. That figure represents half of Amazon’s target to deploy 100,000 electric vans globally by 2030.

In Europe, Amazon and its delivery partners have now completed more than 100 million deliveries using electric cargo bikes, electric mopeds and on-foot delivery methods. These deliveries have helped avoid more than 17,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions.

This places the artificial intelligence firm among the world’s most valuable private technology companies ahead of a possible stock market debut.

The Series H round drew backing from investment firms including Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital, Capital Group, Coatue and D1 Capital Partners.

Investors such as Baillie Gifford, Blackstone, Brookfield, DST Global and Fidelity Management & Research also joined the round.

The funding package also includes $15 billion in previously committed investments from large cloud companies, including $5 billion from Amazon announced earlier this year.

Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron joined the round as strategic infrastructure partners.

With the funding, Anthropic plans to expand computing capacity, grow its Claude products and continue research into safety and interpretability.

The company announced the funding on the same day it released Claude Opus 4.8, its latest model focused on coding, advanced reasoning and what it described as stronger honesty and self-correction abilities.

Anthropic has expanded rapidly since its last fundraising round in February, helped by rising demand from business customers using Claude Code and other enterprise tools. The company said its annualised revenue run rate passed $47 billion earlier this month.

“Claude is increasingly indispensable to our growing global community of customers, and we work tirelessly to make tools like Claude Code and Cowork more helpful, more powerful, and more adaptable to their needs,” said Krishna Rao, chief financial officer of Anthropic.

“This funding will help us serve the historic demand we are experiencing, stay at the research frontier, and bring Claude to more of the places where work happens.”

The company also said it recently signed new agreements with Amazon, Google, Broadcom and SpaceX to secure more computing power as demand for Claude grows.

Under those agreements, Amazon will provide up to five gigawatts of additional capacity, while Google and Broadcom will supply next-generation TPU infrastructure. SpaceX will also provide access to GPU capacity through its Colossus systems.

Anthropic revealed that Claude is now available across Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, with AWS remaining its main cloud and training partner.

“Claude’s latest advancements have driven large-scale adoption among the world’s most demanding organisations. This momentum positions Anthropic to lead the next phase of AI innovation and capture the enormous opportunity ahead,” said Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital.

Marc Stad, managing partner at Dragoneer, said, “The technological progress we are seeing right now is breathtaking. And we believe that we are still in the earliest days of both the development and commercialisation of this technology.”

Neil Mehta, founder and managing partner at Greenoaks, added, “Rarely has a company’s culture, mission, and commercial momentum reinforced each other so completely. We are honoured to deepen our partnership.”

With competition increasing among leading artificial intelligence companies seeking more users, stronger computing infrastructure and fresh investment before entering public markets, Anthropic’s latest raise will strengthen its place.

Earlier this year, OpenAI secured a funding round valued at $852 billion after investment, while Elon Musk’s xAI, now merged with SpaceX, has reportedly targeted a $2 trillion valuation ahead of a future public offering.

• Big Tech calculated to harvest up to $162,492 per person in inflation-linked commercial value from internet users worldwide over a lifetime, according to first-of-its-kind report
• Across the world’s estimated 6,000 million internet users the report’s upper lifetime estimate would amount to approximately $745 trillion in commercial value.
• The study, which assessed 129 major companies, found Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Anthropic are some of the most significant beneficiaries of data capture.

Web3 Foundation today launched ‘The Hidden Price of Free: What Your Data Is Really Worth’, a groundbreaking report revealing that Big Tech and AI companies earn upto $160,000 in commercial value from each internet user over a digital lifetime.

This equates to a staggering $745 trillion across the combined global population of internet users over a period of 60 years.

The study calculated the companies earn upto $8,500 per year from USA internet users per year, upto $2,206 per user in United Kingdom and Europe and $407 in the rest of the world. Globally this equates to an annual amount of upto $908 per internet user.

Over a lifetime that means the commercial value for a user in the USA is $511,869, UK and Europe $132,387, $24,424 in the rest of the world and overall $54,499 globally – or a huge $1.08m in the USA, $260,542 in UK and Europe, $72,821 elsewhere and $162,492 globally when inflation-linked.

In relative terms, the lifetime figure is equivalent to almost five years of full-time employment in the UK, using the ONS 2025 benchmark of $52,474 per annum.

On an inflation-linked basis, the US lifetime figure of $831,301 is roughly equivalent to two times the Q1 2026 median sales price of a new US house. Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Anthropic, Microsoft and Meta are explicitly listed in the report, each earning up to $1,000 annually on a single internet user.

The report shows that the modern internet is not free but paid for through personal data. Searches, clicks, locations, purchases, prompts, messages, images, preferences and behavioural signals are collected, analysed and monetised by some of the world’s most powerful companies, usually without users having meaningful visibility, bargaining power or participation in the value created.

Unlike previous attempts to estimate the value of personal data, which have focused mainly on advertising revenue per active user, Web3 Foundation’s methodology takes a broader view of how human data is monetised in the modern digital economy.

The study examines advertising, AI subscriptions, enterprise licensing, API access, data brokerage, marketplaces, algorithmic recommendations and AI-driven cost savings.

This allowed the findings to account not only for social media and search platforms, but also for emerging AI firms, hardware-linked digital ecosystems and data brokers whose business models increasingly depend on collecting, analysing and reusing personal data at scale.

The report stresses that the figures are not presented as precise valuations or direct cash entitlements owed to individuals. Instead, they are intended as a benchmark for understanding the scale of commercial value associated with personal data and the extent to which that value is captured by companies rather than users.

Why AI changes the data economy

Web3 Foundation argues that artificial intelligence makes the imbalance more urgent. Personal data is no longer used only to target adverts. It is used to train models, improve recommendations, power enterprise systems, build behavioural profiles, create predictive products and generate new forms of machine intelligence.

Every search query, location signal, online purchase, social interaction, uploaded image or chatbot prompt can become part of a wider data economy. As AI systems become more capable, human-origin data becomes more valuable, while users remain largely excluded from the economic upside.

Web3 as a different model

The report says Web3 offers a fundamentally different vision for the internet. Rather than relying on centralised platforms that collect and monetise user data behind closed doors, Web3 technologies are built on decentralised digital infrastructure that can give individuals greater control over their identity, assets and online activity.

In a Web3-enabled internet, users could decide what data they share, with whom and on what terms. The report argues this could shift power away from dominant technology platforms and towards the individuals who generate the underlying value.

“For too long, the internet has operated on an implicit bargain that users do not fully understand: convenience in exchange for surveillance. This report helps expose the scale of that imbalance. The modern digital economy is powered by human data, yet the people generating that value have little visibility, control or participation in the upside. Web3 technology can offer a path toward a more equitable internet, where individuals have genuine ownership over their digital lives rather than simply being the raw material for someone else’s business model.” – Gavin Wood, founder, Web3 Foundation

“The internet does not have to work this way. For decades, digital platforms have been built around centralised control, where users hand over their data, identity and value in exchange for access to services. Web3 represents a fundamentally different model, one where individuals can own their digital assets, verify their identity without surrendering personal information and participate more fairly in the online economy. As AI accelerates and data becomes even more valuable, building a more transparent, user-led internet is becoming increasingly urgent.” – Bill Laboon, vice president, Technical Operations, Web3 Foundation

Speaking at a conference hosted by Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney on Tuesday, Sam Altman said he expected entry-level office jobs to disappear much faster after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

Instead, he said the reality has been different because many jobs still depend heavily on human interaction.

“I’m delighted to be wrong about this,” Altman said during a discussion with CBA chief executive Matt Comyn. “I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened.”

Altman added that he now understands why the disruption has been slower than expected.

“I now think I understand more about why it hasn’t, and I’m obviously grateful but that is an area where my intuitions were just off,” he said.

The OpenAI boss explained that while AI tools can handle technical tasks, many people still prefer dealing with humans directly. He said he once experimented with using AI to reply to Slack and email messages but later returned to answering some personally.

“We really do care about people,” Altman said. “We really do care about our interactions with people.”

That experience, he said, changed how he thinks about the future of work and the role AI will play inside companies.

“I don’t think we’re going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about,” he said.

Even so, several large companies have already linked job cuts and restructuring to AI adoption. Firms including HSBC, Amazon, Standard Chartered and Commonwealth Bank of Australia have said automation and AI tools are changing staffing needs in some departments.

Matt Comyn said AI would likely lead to smaller teams in some parts of the economy, although workers may also progress faster as technology handles routine tasks.

CBA has been investing heavily in AI and staff training as banks prepare for wider adoption of the technology. According to the bank, it plans to spend about A$90 million on reskilling programmes while annual technology investment has reached A$2.4 billion.

Altman also said AI technology is advancing faster than many businesses and institutions can absorb. While AI tools have improved rapidly, he believes enterprise adoption is still at an early stage.

He said OpenAI had been “roughly right” about the pace of technological development but “pretty wrong” about the social and economic consequences.

The remarks come as OpenAI prepares for a possible stock market listing in the United States. Reuters reported last week that the company plans to confidentially file for an initial public offering in the coming weeks.

The report said OpenAI could seek a valuation of about $1 trillion and raise at least $60 billion, which would place it among the world’s most valuable technology companies.

FedEx dropped as much as 7.4% during trading, its steepest fall in over a year, while UPS followed, sliding up to 8.9%. 

Forward Air and GXO Logistics both recorded double-digit declines, while Old Dominion Freight Line fell more than 5%.

The reaction came within hours after Amazon announced that it would open its logistics network to businesses beyond its marketplace.

With such a wide scope, the company plans to offer freight, warehousing, fulfilment and parcel delivery as a single service to external clients.

Amazon has spent years building warehouses, delivery stations and air capacity to speed up its own orders. Now, it wants to use spare capacity to move goods for other companies, even when those goods have nothing to do with its retail platform.

In practical terms, this puts Amazon in direct competition with long-established carriers. It also stretches into areas handled by freight brokers, warehouse operators and trucking firms. 

The market reaction shows how seriously investors are taking that risk.

Amazon said customers could range from industrial groups like 3M to retailers such as Lands’ End, showing it is not targeting a niche. Rather, it is going after the expansive logistics market.

Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker wrote, “The announcement could be a watershed moment for North American freight transportation companies.”

Others see a longer build-up behind this move. Nate Skiver, founder of LPF Spend Management, said, “Amazon has been heading in this direction for several years, offering portions of its supply chain capabilities as services to non-Amazon sellers.” 

He added, “Bringing its end-to-end capabilities to market in a unified service offering stands to disrupt the US logistics market.”

The issue is not just about parcel delivery, as air freight firms, trucking companies and even rail and ocean shipping operators could feel the pressure if Amazon scales quickly. 

Its advantage lies in adequate management, as it owns large parts of the network, from storage to last-mile delivery.

Competitors are facing a company with deep pockets, existing infrastructure and a track record of cutting delivery times. Investors responded fast, and the sell-off reveals that.

However, Amazon still needs to prove it can run this as a standalone service at scale.

The company said businesses will now be able to move, store, and deliver goods using its existing supply chain systems, including ocean freight, air transport, ground haulage, warehousing, and parcel delivery. The service is available to firms across sectors, such as retail, healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing.

Amazon described the rollout as an expansion of tools it has already been using internally and with third-party sellers for years. It pointed to its Fulfilment by Amazon system, which has supported independent sellers since 2006. Those sellers have shipped more than 80 billion units through Amazon’s network.

Over time, Amazon added more logistics functions beyond fulfilment centres. That includes cross-border shipping, customs handling, and bulk storage. The company said it now moves billions of items annually for selling partners.

Peter Larsen, vice president of Amazon Supply Chain Services, said the system builds on long-term infrastructure investment.

“Amazon is bringing the infrastructure, intelligence, and scale of its supply chain services, proven over decades, to businesses everywhere, much like Amazon Web Services did for cloud computing,” he said.

“Supply chain wasn’t just a function at Amazon, it was core to providing an exceptional shopping experience. Our differentiator. The reason we could offer fast, dependable delivery that nobody else could. 

“And with the launch of ASCS, we’re confident we can give any other business access to the same cost efficiency, reliability, and speed that we’ve built for Amazon customers.”

Several large companies are already testing the service, including Procter & Gamble, using Amazon’s freight network to move raw materials and finished goods across its operations.

3M is also using the system to transport products from factories to distribution centres worldwide, while Lands’ End said it is using Amazon’s unified inventory system to manage orders across multiple sales channels.

Again, American Eagle Outfitters is using Amazon’s parcel delivery network for online orders across its brands.

Andrew McLean, chief executive of Lands’ End, said the system improves delivery timing for customers.

“Amazon is one of our key ecommerce partners, and we’re excited to leverage Amazon Supply Chain Services to position inventory closer to customers so we can reach them even faster,” he said. 

“This consistency is central to our solutions-based approach, enabling us to serve customers with confidence and agility, especially during peak seasons.”

Amazon said the system is built around three main services, which are freight transport, inventory distribution, and parcel delivery.

Freight covers movement by air, sea, road, and rail, with tracking and customs support included. Distribution allows companies to store stock closer to demand and fulfil orders across different sales channels. 

Parcel delivery provides nationwide shipping with two to five-day delivery windows, including weekend operations.

The company further noted that businesses will also get access to a central platform to manage services and shipments.

Amazon also highlighted early results from sellers already using its logistics tools, saying some businesses recorded higher sales after integrating supply chain services, alongside lower operating costs.

Independent sellers are a big part of Amazon’s logistics network. They now move billions of products each year through its system, supported by fulfilment centres and transport operations across regions.

Some sellers said the expansion reduces operational pressure. One business founder said:

“Amazon has added value at every stage of our supply chain from cross-border logistics to warehouse storage and parcel shipping,” said Todd Bairstow, founder of Finer Form. 

“We’ve been able to save money, eliminate operational complexity, and it’s given us more time to focus on what matters: building our brand. Honestly, there wouldn’t be a Finer Form without Amazon.”

Amazon said the new service builds on the same infrastructure it developed for its own retail operations, adding that it now wants to make that system available to any business, not just those selling on its marketplace.

People familiar with the talks say investors have already made early offers in the range of $850 billion to $900 billion but the company has not accepted any of them.

Discussions are still at an early stage, and nothing has been agreed.

Several investors are trying to secure large stakes, with some offers said to be worth up to $50 billion in new capital. A decision is expected at a board meeting in May.

Anthropic last raised funds in February and that round brought in $30 billion, valuing the company at $380 billion. If this new round goes through at the higher valuation being discussed, it would mark a surge in a matter of months.

The move would also change its position in the market as OpenAI was valued at about $852 billion in March after a major funding round, but a deal at $900 billion would place Anthropic ahead as the most valuable artificial intelligence startup.

The company has received backing from major technology firms. Google has committed billions of dollars, with more funding tied to performance targets. Amazon has also invested heavily and plans to increase its stake over time.

Anthropic declined to comment when contacted.

Revenue growth has supported the surge in investor interest with the company’s annual revenue run rate passing $30 billion earlier this year and is now said to be approaching $40 billion.

Growth has come from demand for its Claude models, especially tools built for coding and business use.

Recent releases include new versions of its core systems and a cybersecurity-focused model with limited access due to safety issues.

There is also a public listing under consideration. Bloomberg reported that an initial public offering could come as soon as October. If that plan holds, this funding round may be the last before the company goes public.

The agreement will see Meta use tens of millions of Graviton processing cores, according to Amazon Web Services executive Nafea Bshara, who said the contract would run for several years and be worth billions of dollars.

Demand for AI infrastructure is spreading beyond graphics processors made by firms such as Nvidia, while GPUs are essential in training AI models. Companies now need large volumes of central processing units to run trained systems, manage workloads and support AI agents.

Meta said the deal is part of its strategy to avoid relying on one supplier or one type of chip.

“As we scale the infrastructure behind Meta’s AI ambitions, diversifying our compute sources is a strategic imperative,” Santosh Janardhan, head of infrastructure at Meta, said in a statement.

Amazon said Meta chose its latest Graviton5 processor because of its price and performance. The chip is Amazon’s fifth in-house CPU generation and is produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

“We pass that savings on to the customers,” Bshara told Reuters.

He added that most of the chip capacity for Meta would be based in the United States.

The partnership builds on an existing relationship between both companies that dates back several years. Earlier work had focused mainly on cloud services, Amazon’s Bedrock platform and GPU rentals.

For Meta, the latest agreement adds to its list of chip partnerships. The company has already signed major supply deals with Nvidia and AMD, while also working with Arm Holdings.

Amazon, meanwhile, is going deeper into AI infrastructure with both its own silicon and outside partnerships. Earlier this week, it announced another $5 billion investment in Anthropic, which will also use tens of millions of AWS Graviton cores.

The agreement, which expands a partnership the two companies began in 2023, strengthens Amazon’s place in the fast-growing market for advanced computing services.

Amazon said it will invest $5 billion in Anthropic immediately, with a further $20 billion available later if agreed commercial targets are met. That comes on top of the $8 billion Amazon has already invested in the company.

Anthropic, the maker of Claude, said it will use current and future generations of Amazon’s Trainium chips to train and run its models, expecting to secure up to five gigawatts of computing capacity over time.

The company also confirmed that one gigawatt of capacity using Trainium2 and Trainium3 chips should be available by the end of this year.

Giving Anthropic more access to the large-scale infrastructure needed to support high demand, Amazon gets a major long-term customer for its custom-built chips and cloud services.

More than 100,000 customers already use Anthropic’s Claude models on AWS, according to the companies.

Customers will also be able to access Anthropic’s Claude Platform directly through AWS accounts, allowing them to use existing billing, security controls and monitoring tools without separate contracts.

Amazon has invested heavily in expanding data centres and computing power as demand for advanced software tools rises. The company recently said it expects around $200 billion in capital spending this year, with much of that linked to technology infrastructure.

Chief Executive Andy Jassy said Anthropic’s long-term use of Trainium chips showed the progress both companies had made together.

“Our custom AI silicon offers high performance at significantly lower cost for customers, which is why it’s in such hot demand,” he said.

“Anthropic’s commitment to run its large language models on AWS Trainium for the next decade reflects the progress we’ve made together on custom silicon, as we continue delivering the technology and infrastructure our customers need to build with generative AI.”

Anthropic Chief Executive and co-founder Dario Amodei said demand for Claude continued to grow quickly.

“Our users tell us Claude is increasingly essential to how they work, and we need to build the infrastructure to keep pace with rapidly growing demand,” he said.

“Our collaboration with Amazon will allow us to continue advancing AI research while delivering Claude to our customers, including the more than 100,000 building on AWS.”

Amazon shares rose about 2.7% in extended trading after the announcement.

The company said the acquisition will strengthen its low Earth orbit project, known as Project Kuiper, though it still trails SpaceX and its Starlink service by a wide margin.

Through the deal, Amazon gains Globalstar’s existing satellites, spectrum licences and infrastructure. That includes about two dozen satellites already in orbit, which will support its drive into direct-to-device services.

This technology allows mobile phones to connect directly to satellites without relying on ground towers, a feature seen as key for emergency use and coverage in remote areas.

Amazon plans to roll out its own satellite internet service later this year. It is also working towards deploying about 3,200 satellites by 2029, with a regulatory deadline requiring roughly half of that number to be in orbit by July next year.

Globalstar’s network will continue to support services already used by Apple devices. The company powers features such as Emergency SOS and Find My on iPhones and Apple Watches, and Amazon confirmed it has signed an agreement to maintain those services.

Apple had invested about $1.5 billion in Globalstar in 2024, securing a 20% stake to expand its satellite-based communication features. A new network backed by Apple is expected to increase Globalstar’s satellite count to 54.

Amazon said the acquisition will also allow it to introduce direct-to-device services from 2028. The system is expected to support voice, text and data connections, particularly in areas where mobile networks are unavailable.

Panos Panay, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, said: “There are billions of customers out there living, travelling, and operating in places beyond the reach of existing networks, and we started Amazon Leo to help bridge that divide.”

He added: “By combining Globalstar’s proven expertise and strong foundation with Amazon’s customer-obsession and innovation, customers can expect faster, more reliable service in more places, keeping them connected to the people and things that matter most.”

Despite the expansion, Amazon still faces strong competition. Starlink already operates the largest satellite network in the world, with more than 10,000 satellites and over 9 million users globally.

The service accounts for a significant share of SpaceX’s revenue and is growing through partnerships with telecom operators, including T-Mobile.

Analysts say scale is a big advantage for SpaceX. However, Amazon’s access to Globalstar’s spectrum could help it move faster in direct-to-device services, an area where competition is increasing.

Paul Jacobs, Globalstar’s chief executive, said: “We have long believed low Earth orbit satellite constellations offer the most effective path to truly connect users and devices anywhere and anytime.”

The deal offers Globalstar shareholders $90 per share, or the option to receive Amazon stock. That represents a premium of more than 30% compared with the company’s share price before talks became public.

Shares in Globalstar rose after the announcement, while Amazon’s stock also moved higher.

The transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals, including clearance from the Federal Communications Commission, and the achievement of certain deployment milestones.