Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman talks about why the company lagged rivals in AI—until now

While Amazon already has plenty of AI offerings and an $8 billion investment in Anthropic, AWS CEO Matt Garman admits the company has lagged rivals when it comes to rolling out products. “We didn’t have some of the whiz-bangy things that you could get out there quickly,” he told me recently, arguing that strategy was by design.

“We took the approach of putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes,” Garman explained, “not necessarily of how do we get a product out to be first, but how do we think about helping customers build this baseline so that they don’t risk security, they don’t risk operational excellence, and they can build AI applications and agentic applications into the fabric of their enterprise that takes advantage of the data they have?”

“Our enterprise customers are now building real applications that are delivering real value to them,” he said, versus “just a chat bot that’s up on their website.” 

Garman argues “the opportunity in front of us and the rate of change of technology is just massive.” The challenge for leaders, he says, is to stay focused on security and operational excellence.

And for Amazon? “Making sure that we are planning two, three, four, five years out for capacity.” And while boss Andy Jassy recently warned staffers of AI-induced job cuts, Garman, who started at AWS as an intern 20 years ago, says “there’s never been a more exciting time to be an intern.” In his view, “these tools can instantly elevate them to doing some of the more interesting work that previously they may not have been capable of doing.” More news below.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

Trump is not done with Putin

The president gave a phone interview to the BBC late last night—literally rousing a BBC reporter from bed—in which Trump said he was not yet “done” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, but reiterated that he feels the Russian leader has misled him. "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him," Trump said. "We'll have a great conversation. I'll say: 'That's good, I'll think we're close to getting it done,' and then he'll knock down a building in Kyiv." Earlier, Trump gave Putin 50 days to end the war or face 100% tariffs.

Trump: “I trust almost nobody”

Arguably the most remarkable part of the BBC’s Trump interview is where reporter Gary O'Donoghue asks Trump if he trusts Putin and the president replies, “I trust almost nobody … to be honest with you.” The long pause between those two phrases seemingly speaks volumes.

If the Fed’s Powell is fired, expect “collapse”

Deutsche Bank published a note discussing possible market reactions if Trump succeeds in removing Jerome Powell from the U.S. Federal Reserve. “We believe the market reaction would be large,” the note says. “The empirical and academic evidence on the impact of a loss of central bank independence is fairly clear: In extreme cases, both the currency and the bond market can collapse as inflation expectations move higher, real yields drop and broader risk premia increase on the back of institutional erosion.” Trump is trying to use an arcane allegation about whether the Fed is following local rules in the refurbishment of its HQ as a reason to defenestrate Powell.

Apple will launch a foldable phone, UBS says

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What Q2 earnings could say about tariffs

Some of the biggest banks and companies in the U.S.–from JPMorgan to Netflix– are expected to report quarterly earnings this week. Here’s how they could serve as an indication of who is actually bearing the burden of tariffs.

Musk believes BYD is winning the EV race

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Nvidia will resume sales in China

“The U.S. government has assured NVIDIA that licenses will be granted, and NVIDIA hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company said. The restart came after CEO Jensen Huang personally made the case to President Trump.

Kenvue CEO resigns

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Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 company C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.  

New RTO mandate at Starbucks

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The markets

S&P 500 futures rose 0.31% premarket and the underlying index rose 0.65% yesterday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.6% this morning. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.55%. Stoxx Europe 600 added 0.3% in early trading. The UK’s FTSE 100 was flat in early trading but poised to break through the 9,000 level for the first time. Bitcoin sank 2.56% to $116K.

From the analysts

Deutsche Bank on Bitcoin: “While volatility remains inherent, … Bitcoin's integration into portfolios is maturing, and potentially signals a more sustainable trend beyond previous instances of short-term market speculation,” per Marion Laboure and Camilla Siazon.

Pantheon Macroeconomics on the U.S. economy: “The economy will slow further in the second half, with annualized growth in GDP likely to average about 1%, down from around 11/2% in the first half. Households’ real after-tax incomes will stagnate, while elevated economic policy uncertainty will weigh on investment and exports … So we expect a prolonged Fed easing cycle, with rates falling by 75bp in H2 and a further 75bp in 2026,” per Samuel Tombs and Oliver Allen.

Motley Fool Asset Management on copper tariffs: “The new copper tariffs are purported to help the competitiveness of American participants in the sector but will do no such thing. There are only 2 smelters in the country, and it will take 5+ years to add another. The cost to build will be $6 billion per million tons of capacity, and the global smelter space is oversupplied and has awful economics,” per Bill Mann.

Around the watercooler

Elon Musk spent months slashing federal contracts — Now his AI company is celebrating a $200M Pentagon contract and new unit to get government business by Jessica Mathews

Amazon’s Prime Day celebratory recap was missing one key metric that the tech giant usually reveals by Jason Del Rey

Goldman Sachs doesn’t have to hire a $180,000 software engineer—meet Devin, its new AI-powered worker by Preston Fore

The ‘Gen Z stare’ is more than a TikTok trend — it’s a real problem in the workplace and the job market, by Nick Lichtenberg and Fortune Intelligence

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.