Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon’s cloud unit, resigns

The CEO of Amazon’s (AMZN) cloud computing business, Adam Selipsky, will step down next month, the company announced Tuesday, marking a phase of rapid growth for the division and a broader transition in a technology sector that is strives to capitalize on the future. The age of AI.

Matt Garman, senior vice president of sales and marketing at AWS, will replace Selipsky as CEO effective June 3, the company announced.

Selipsky’s departure comes at a strong time for AWS. The cloud services unit is growing rapidly and has reached a milestone of generating a run rate of $100 billion. Amazon’s broader artificial intelligence strategy runs through AWS, the industry’s leading cloud service by market share. During the company’s latest earnings report, executives said cloud customers are increasingly signing up for larger contracts with longer-term commitments, many of which include generative AI components.

Amazon stock was down just under 1% in morning trading.

“Given the state of the company and the management team, this is an appropriate time for me to make this transition and take advantage of the opportunity to spend more time with my family for a while, recharge myself a little and create some free mental space to think and consider possibilities,” Selipsky said. He took over AWS in 2021.

Selipsky, whose three-year tenure was defined by the pandemic, oversaw operations as businesses reeled from the disruptions of the public health crisis and cut spending. But the cloud division has since seen increasing sales growth.

AWS’ revenue last quarter was $25 billion, beating analysts’ expectations and increasing about 17% from the same period last year.

“I would like to thank Adam for everything he has done to lead AWS over the past three years. He took over in the middle of the pandemic, which presented a wide range of leadership and business challenges. business,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement. note to employees Tuesday.

Garman has worked at Amazon for nearly 18 years, starting as an MBA intern in 2005 and becoming one of the first AWS product managers. He then worked in the same division as general manager of all AWS compute services and then as head of sales and marketing. His career follows the development of AWS, which became the company’s most profitable unit. Amazon naming an AWS veteran to lead the key division underscores the importance of the role and the pivotal moment for the company.

Amazon, which has positioned itself as a leader in AI, is among the tech giants racing to capture market share and launch new consumer services, largely based on its major cloud services business. Earlier this year, Amazon increased its investment in AI startup Anthropic, committing an additional $2.75 billion to bring its total investment to $4 billion.

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Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hshaban.

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