Branislav Ristic

[Andy Jassy @ajassy]

In the communities in which Amazon has a major presence, rents have outpaced salaries and made it difficult for people like teachers and nurses and first responders to live close to their jobs and remain part of the communities they support. This is a major challenge that we believe the private and public sectors can and should work together to address.

In 2021, Amazon committed $2B to help people access affordable housing in the Puget Sound (in WA), Arlington, VA (and the Washington DC region), and Nashville, TN. We started with a $2 billion commitment to help create and preserve 20,000 affordable homes in five years, and we announced yesterday both that we’ve exceeded that goal already (with more than 21,000 homes funded in just three years) and that we are extending our Housing Equity Fund commitment, with an additional $1.4 billion to help create or preserve another 14,000 affordable homes in our communities.

I felt fortunate to have the chance yesterday to tour one of the affordable housing projects with our partner, Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority, which is being built right next to Amazon’s one-time headquarters—where I worked for about 9 years and have lots of fond memories. The project, Beacon Pacific Village, (slated to open this fall) will provide 160 affordable homes including large, multigenerational family units, and have eldercare and child daycare facilities onsite. Really impressed by the building, its vision for supporting communities, and the folks behind it.

Below is a look at a map that shows the 47 projects we have committed to fund across the Puget Sound with another 68 more happening across Arlington/DC and Nashville. They will provide thousands of families with affordable homes to live in, with the concentration of investments near existing and planned transit.

It’s very important to us—and to me personally—that we give back to the communities where we live and work. Addressing affordable housing in our headquarter regions is a priority, and just one of our many efforts to support the communities in which we operate. Very appreciative of our partners and team for all that they are doing to tackle this pressing issue.

[AWS Open Source @AWSOpen]

We are proud to support the launch of Valkey, an open source alternative to the Redis in-memory, NoSQL data store. Hosted by the Linux Foundation, Valkey will continue development of an open source, in-memory data store.

Announcement: https://t.co/PxD14F08ID

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

#AWS Digital Sovereignty Pledge: Announcing a new, independent sovereign cloud in Europe. https://t.co/3FGncim2I9

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

Get the details on Alexa's Large Language Model at @AmazonScience https://t.co/6QDRdZj20K

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

This is the report on which the Amsterdam City Council based their decision to ban ocean-going cruise ships from the city. At 10% engine power the ship emits per hour as much 30,000 trucks doing a lap on the A10, the Amsterdam ring road. https://t.co/6o2XkOvdgR

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

On-demand Container Loading in AWS Lambda - @MarcJBrooker and team were awarded Best Paper by @usenix on the challenges of loading (huge) container images in #aws Lambda. https://t.co/yasdN1pEd4 (pdf)

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

When I speak with developers about generative AI, much excitement is around automating away the “boring” stuff. The boilerplate code. The repetition. And focusing on hard problems. It’s no different for folks in IT or security. With AWS AppFabric, we’re making it much easier to manage and secure SaaS apps in a no-code environment and significantly reducing the need to create custom point-to-point app integrations. Less overhead means more time spent working on things you’re actually interested in, and it's an area where generative AI is already playing an important role. https://t.co/DbgaXSYvR2

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

For more than 25 years, Amazon has invested heavily in AI technologies. #AWS is announcing a $100 million investment in our new Generative AI Innovation Center. connecting AWS AI and ML experts with our customers around the globe. https://t.co/XpiH4pmLeA

[Branislav Ristic @banneris]

Do you remember when you joined Twitter? I do! #MyTwitterAnniversary

[AWS for Government @AWS_Gov]

🇳🇱 We welcome our latest member—the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (@ncsc_nl)—to the AWS Global Cloud Security Program. Together, we’ll work on cybersecurity initiatives & strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the Netherlands. 👉🔗 https://t.co/fxEPeW2Uxf

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

We’ve seen an explosion of interest in LLMs, foundation models, and generative AI in everyday conversations. But few understand the underlying technology. I met with @SwamiSivasubram to learn more. https://t.co/XbH0D67sMv #AWS #Bedrock #CodeWhisperer

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

Thrilled to support startups tackling the world’s toughest challenges with impactful AI models and tools, and help turn their ideas into reality! #AWS https://t.co/mKmdBg4alT

[Amazon Science @AmazonScience]

Announcing the latest #AmazonResearchAwards call for proposals, AWS AI: Generative AI. The award provides grant recipients unrestricted funds and AWS promotional credits. The submission deadline is April 26. Learn more about the CFP, and how to apply. #GenAI

[Amazon Science @AmazonScience]

Happy #PiDay from Amazon Science! This time last year, we celebrated scientists, engineers, and mathematicians past, present, and future on a billboard in Times Square for 3 hours and 14 minutes. See who we featured and learn more about their achievements: https://t.co/NQo5ETXU24

[Jeff Bezos @JeffBezos]

Big milestone. Kudos and congrats to the whole Zoox team!

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

Today, Australia gets its second #AWS Region in Melbourne, bringing the best cloud technologies closer to companies solving hard human problems, like @o8tNeuro #AWS #allthingsdistributed https://t.co/u5mGMmRX9i

[Branislav Ristic @banneris]

@budvacg

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

The 30th #AWS Region is now live in Hyderabad. A great day for innovators in India and our customers all around the world https://t.co/YZ0hTIkDmV

[Werner Vogels @Werner]

The Swiss were some of earliest #AWS customers and have been innovating with us for more than 16 years. Today, I’m happy to announce the launch of a new AWS Region in Zurich. https://t.co/7WcXqH5E00

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Starlink is now active on all continents, including Antarctica
https://t.co/Q1VvqV5G0i