Amazon cloud chief says inference demand is surging

Investing.com -- Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud division is seeing customers move from training AI models to integrating them into business operations through a process called inference, according to the unit's chief executive.

"We still see large training clusters being used by a number of companies, but as these models get really popular and really powerful, more and more companies are integrating that inference into their workloads," Amazon Web Services Chief Executive Officer Matt Garman said on the Bloomberg Tech television show on Monday.

Training refers to the computing-intensive process of building an AI model, while inference involves using that model to respond to user prompts.

Amazon last week announced it would spend $220 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, an increase from its previous forecast of $200 billion. The higher spending reflects rising costs for memory and other components needed for data centers.

Garman did not provide a spending forecast for next year but described the potential artificial intelligence business for the company as "just massive."

Amazon is securing long-term customer contracts to help project usage for new data centers. "As we're investing, we're getting five-year commitments from customers," Garman told Bloomberg Television. "Today, demand still significantly outstrips supply and we're trying to build and invest to keep up with what customers are asking for."

Amazon's shares have risen recently, pushing the company's market value above $3 trillion. Last week, the company reported that cloud-computing revenue grew for a fifth consecutive quarter.

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