Amazon has confirmed that its cashierless Just Walk Out systems will remain operational at third-party retail sites following the June discontinuation of its Amazon One palm-scanning service. The shift affects more than 300 stores co-branded with convenience chains and stadium concessions, where palm-based identity verification accounted for roughly 60% of customer entries. Moving forward, retailers will rely on existing app- and credit-card–based authentication, while Amazon will continue to provide software, sensors and loss-prevention analytics under a revenue-share model averaging 2.8% per transaction.

Amazon MGM’s documentary on First Lady Melania Trump opened to an estimated $7 million in U.S. theaters, nearly doubling the upper end of pre-release forecasts. Despite reaching No. 3 nationwide, the project remains over $68 million in the red, after Amazon paid $40 million for distribution rights and invested $35 million in marketing. Early international rollouts produced just $44,960 in the U.K. (155 locations) and $7,696 in Italy (94 locations), underscoring the challenge of recouping costs ahead of the film’s planned Prime Video debut.

Amazon notified Washington state authorities of plans to cut 2,196 roles across software development, engineering management and technical product teams—accounting for over half of its 4,000 corporate job reductions announced globally. The affected employees include 512 program managers and 438 senior engineers. This latest wave follows 14,000 cuts in October and aligns with efforts to redeploy headcount toward AI and robotics divisions, where average compensation costs are 35% higher but productivity gains are expected to exceed 20% year-over-year.

Analyst consensus forecasts for Amazon Web Services (AWS) ahead of the upcoming fourth-quarter release emphasize margin pressures due to tough year-ago comparisons. AWS is projected to sustain mid-teens operating margins despite a 12% increase in capital expenditures focused on next-generation AI infrastructure. The company signaled plans to deploy an additional 200,000 custom accelerators and expand three hyperscale data centers in Virginia, Oregon and Ireland during 2026, maintaining capex intensity near 8% of net sales to support growing large-language model workloads.