Amazon has invested 5,000 million euros in Catalonia in the last 10 years and currently employs more than 8,000 workers. The multinational calculates that since 2016, when it opened the Castellbisbal center, it has contributed more than 4,000 million to the Catalan gross domestic product (GDP). This is data provided by the company at an event at Foment del Treball, where it reviewed some aspects of its decade in Catalonia.

Amazon's new logistics center, opened in 2023 in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Figueres, has revolutionized the Alt Empordà. It is, by far, the largest company in the region, ahead of major companies such as the supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant Transgourmet. Around 2,000 people work day and night, a volume that represents more than 1% of the entire population of all municipalities within a 40 km radius. And, logically, this correlation between workers and inhabitants, much higher than that of any large company in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, causes everything surrounding Amazon's business to have a direct impact on the day-to-day life of the region.

A flood of millions is coming to Spain to advance the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and expand data center infrastructure. Amazon's Vice President of Legal Affairs, David Zapolsky, announced an increase of €18 billion in planned investment in Spain, bringing the company's total planned investment to €33.7 billion. The company made the announcement at a conference during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, ​​explaining that the investment aims to strengthen data center and AI infrastructure in Aragon, where it has its data centers. The Spanish government was quick to react to the news, which represents Amazon's largest investment outside the United States. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated on social media that this milestone demonstrates that Spain "is a safe bet."

OpenAI has once again shaken up the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape with the announcement of an unprecedented funding round. The company, led by Sam Altman, has raised $110 billion in a deal spearheaded by three strategic partners: Amazon, SoftBank, and Nvidia. With this capital injection, the company's pre-funding valuation soars to $730 billion, placing it among the most valuable corporations in the world. The deal is divided into three main tranches: Amazon will contribute $50 billion, while SoftBank and Nvidia will each contribute $30 billion. "AI will be deployed everywhere, and the world needs massive computing power to meet the demand," Altman told CNBC. The strategic alliance with Amazon and Nvidia

Beyond the money, the agreement redefines cloud partnerships. Amazon Web Services (AWS) becomes a key technology partner for OpenAI. This alliance includes joint development; OpenAI will use Amazon's custom Trainium chips, which promise better value for money. AWS will also be the exclusive third-party provider for OpenAI Frontier, a platform for managing teams of AI agents in the enterprise.

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It's very easy to buy on Amazon, but often you're unaware of everything that goes on behind the scenes. At the El Prat de Llobregat center, this is clear. With a constant flow of boxes loaded with products and finished packages moving from one conveyor belt to another in time with each online order, activity never stops, and any improvement in the logistics process is welcome.

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The Spanish government has proposed strengthening controls on imports and e-commerce packages from Amazon, Shein, and Temu valued at up to €150. These are some of the measures that Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo presented to representatives of the 17 autonomous communities at the Interterritorial Council for Internationalization meeting, held at the Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona. Given the context of US tariff policies under Donald Trump, with imports, like exports, on the rise, and although border controls are effective and thorough, "a further step is necessary regarding industrial products to guarantee competition and consumer protection," he explained at a press conference alongside Catalan Minister Sámper. This plan, developed in coordination with the autonomous communities, aims to ensure that there are no "weak points" for the entry of products that do not meet European requirements. Therefore, they are also working in coordination with the European Commission. The intention is to expand the list of industrial products, working in conjunction with the sectors involved. And greater control over small packages, up to 150 euros, which were previously exempt from tariffs and duties, but are now not. The goal, he said, is "to ensure they compete on a level playing field with domestic products and with guarantees of consumer protection." This is especially focused on textiles, footwear, and toys. The Minister explained that a working group will be created with e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon and Shein, to address the safety of the products they sell and the creation of an early warning system in coordination with the regional governments to anticipate risks or fraud that could affect businesses. The idea, as the Minister explained to ARA, is to follow the approach used with financial institutions to prevent the closure of bank branches in rural areas and to improve services for the elderly; that is, through the involvement of the sector, rather than through mandatory regulations and laws. The Minister of Economy has announced that the foreign trade data to be published this Thursday will reflect, in terms of exports, "one of the best years in history," despite the challenges in the international arena. It is within this context of strong growth in the foreign trade sector that he has framed the measures to protect sectors and consumers from industrial products that do not comply with European regulations. For his part, Sàmper has stated that the Catalan government's plans for 2026-2030 aim to add approximately 2,000 more exporting companies to the 18,000 that currently export regularly by the end of the period. These companies will each sell to at least five countries for a minimum value of 5 million euros. Therefore, 30 million euros in aid has been allocated to 1,000 companies. The regional minister has stated that US tariff policies have affected Catalan exports to the US worth approximately €2 billion, representing 67% of total exports. This is all being done under the umbrella of diversification: exports to China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and other countries.

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Amazon has announced a new wave of layoffs that will affect 16,000 people worldwide, none of them in Spain. This is the second major restructuring by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant in the last three months, following the one in January. will announce the departure of 18,000 peopleOf these, 791 were in the corporate offices in Barcelona. The company attributes this second wave to the restructuring process following the era of overhiring resulting from the pandemic.

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Amazon has decided to eliminate not only all the businesses on the streets of our towns and cities, but also one of the quintessentially English traits: gardening, which is more than just a hobby; it's a way of life idealized by much of the islands' literature. Among others, and perhaps the most captivating, is that of Jane Austen. Examples abound throughout her work. The very essence of the garden. Austenian It would be the garden of her home in Chawton, a village in Hampshire, in southern England, about 95 km southwest of London. The writer lived there for seven years, and in the garden she cultivated flowers and vegetables.

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The battle for European technological sovereignty continues. Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on Thursday the launch of its sovereign European cloud (AWS). European Sovereign CloudAWS has announced plans to expand its European sovereign cloud presence from Germany across the EU, a new independent cloud for Europe located within the European Union (EU) and physically and logically separate from other regions where AWS operates, with core infrastructure based in Germany. According to a company statement, this is "the only fully functional sovereign cloud, operated independently and supported by robust technical controls, sovereignty guarantees, and legal protections designed to meet the sensitive data needs of European governments and businesses." AWS also announced plans to expand its European sovereign cloud presence from Germany across the EU to support stringent requirements for isolation, in-country data residency, and low latency. This will begin with what they call new AWS Sovereign Local Zones (AWS Local Zones). Sovereign Local ZonesLocated in Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands, AWS Local Zones are a type of infrastructure that allows customers to store their data in a specific geographic location to meet data residency requirements or run latency-sensitive applications. The new zones announced this Thursday will be part of the European sovereign cloud, extending sovereignty controls from Germany to the entire EU. This will give customers with stricter data independence or residency requirements the option to use AWS. Dedicated Local Zones, AWS AI Factories either AWS Outposts in locations they select, including their own local data centers.

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Amazon and the unions have closed an agreement for the workforce adjustment plan (ERE) With 791 layoffs at its Barcelona corporate offices, 19% fewer than initially announced at the start of this process. According to a statement released Wednesday by the CCOO union, the main reason for the layoffs is the automation of processes due to the implementation of artificial intelligence, but also the relocation of operations to other countries "with more lenient labor regulations." Approximately 2,800 people work at Amazon's Barcelona offices, so the layoffs will affect 28% of the workforce. As agreed, Amazon employees who lose their jobs will receive severance pay of 38 days per year of service, capped at 24 months' salary, with a minimum severance payment of €7,000. They will also be entitled to paid leave until February 28th. The unions have also agreed to a payment of €1,500 for those whose visas are tied to their employment contracts, and that their health insurance will be covered until May 31st. This restructuring plan is part of a nationwide reduction of approximately 900 Amazon employees, 80% of whom are based in Barcelona and the remainder in the Madrid offices. Initially, the multinational planned to lay off 1,200 people in Spain. An agreement on the workforce reduction plan for the Madrid offices, which could affect an additional 125 people, is expected to be finalized this afternoon.

The staff affected by this reduction do not work in logistics centers, but rather as call center agents and IT personnel in Amazon's BCN10 and BCN15 buildings in the Poblenou neighborhood. The workers of call center They mainly serve suppliers, while the other laid-off employees perform tasks related to IT, translation, taxation, identity checks, and data management.

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Many analysts see similarities between the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) investments and what happened in 2000 with the .comAfter a period of euphoria and rising prices, the bubble burst. .comThese were the years when the internet was becoming increasingly popular. Companies received millions in stock market investments without it being clear whether they would ultimately reap the expected profits. Many disappeared when the bubble burst, when expectations spiraled out of control and a recession hit, bringing things back down to earth. Others, like Amazon or eBay, for example, after a period of losses, ended up becoming tech giants. Now many analysts see parallels. And with the fear that, in the event of a crisis, the economic impact will be much greater than before. In fact, just one of the companies involved, Nvidia, is worth on the stock market today the equivalent of everything that was lost in that crisis.

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The major digital platforms (the big techThey dominate the economy. Digital technology has become indispensable, whether for information retrieval, social networking, e-commerce, operating systems, or smartphones. Each of these fields is dominated by a few companies. The leaders are Google with its search engine; Meta in social networking with WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram; Amazon in e-commerce; Microsoft with Windows and applications; and Apple in mobile phones. High fixed costs, network effects, and dynamic economies of scale (e.g., in the learning curve) make these companies increasingly competitive. big tech are dominant. The accumulation of data leads to feedback effects, in which more production and more sales induce more data and more network effects that make the company more efficient, improve products and services, and stay ahead of competitors. They are, therefore, markets that migrate towards a winner that takes the whole market or most of it (winner-takes-alleitherwinner-takes-most).

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In just a few days, there have been two news stories related to Amazon: a workforce reduction substantial enough to require a collective dismissal procedure (ERE) and a multi-million dollar agreement with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. This is no coincidence. What is Amazon's long-term goal? To eliminate three-quarters of its staff through automation and artificial intelligence. In doing so, it joins other tech companies on the path already taken: leveraging technology to reduce labor costs and increase productivity.

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Amazon, through its subsidiary AWS, will provide cloud computing services to OpenAI under a multi-year agreement valued at approximately $38 billion (around €33 billion at the current exchange rate). Thanks to the partnership, the creator of ChatGPT will have access to hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processors to train and run its artificial intelligence models. The agreement highlights the AI industry's enormous appetite for computing power, driven by the search for technologies capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence. The news has caused Amazon's stock to rise. AWS has extensive experience running large-scale AI infrastructures "securely, reliably, with clusters exceeding 500,000 chips," according to a statement. AWS's leadership in cloud infrastructure, combined with OpenAI's pioneering advancements in generative AI, will help millions of users continue to derive value from ChatGPT, according to the official statement.

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I've read in several media outlets that Amazon plans to lay off 1,200 employees at its Madrid and Barcelona offices. And that Google, Microsoft, Meta… are following suit. They're citing "a correction in the tech sector" after the pandemic boom. As if the digital world had deflated. Really?

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E-commerce giant Amazon has launched a collective dismissal process that could affect up to 1,200 employees at its corporate offices in Spain, according to sources familiar with the process who spoke to Europa Press. The US multinational announced this week a global workforce reduction affecting 14,000 people and has now also initiated two workforce reduction plans (EREs) in Spain. These two EREs will involve 1,200 layoffs at Amazon Digital Spain, with offices in Madrid, and Amazon Spain Service, in Barcelona. According to the same sources, there will be no impact on other cities in Spain or on the company's other operations. Amazon's global workforce comprises approximately 1.5 million employees, of whom around 350,000 perform corporate duties. In Spain, the multinational employs a total of 28,000 people.

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The Platform for Language has revealed a linguistic discrimination between two Mossos d'Esquadra officers at the Amazon warehouse in the Zona Franca (Free Trade Zone) and a transport driver. Both workers refused to unload the truck if the driver didn't speak to them in Spanish, arguing that it's not true that Catalan is mandatory in Catalonia. The transport driver tried to maintain Catalan until he saw the conflict escalating and needed to abandon the load or risk losing his company €10,000.

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The unstoppable deforestation and the climate crisis threaten the great green lung that is still the Amazon rainforest and take her to the dreaded point of no return in recovery andpush towards savannization. That is to say, there is a danger that the rich diversity of vegetation and climate in the American region will become a vast expanse of semi-arid land filled with scrubland. In a new study published this Tuesday by the journal Nature Communication, an international team of researchers has found that there is another factor to consider when adding more concern about the future of the Amazon: rainfall.

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This summer, in the world of series, The summer I fell in love has managed to monopolize part of the conversation on the networks. Just do some scroll on Instagram or TikTok to find videos asking users if they are "team Conrad or team Jeremiah." This is the dilemma posed by this Amazon teen series, which follows the romantic struggles of young Belly (Lola Tung), who must decide between two brothers she has known since she was little, Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). The platform is currently airing the final season of the series – it publishes one episode per week – and, as the finale approached, which is available on the platform this Wednesday, the debate on social media has not stopped growing. A few weeks ago, the head of series at Amazon MGM Studios, Vernon Sanders, stated that The summer I fell in love has become the spearhead of its strategy for youth fiction, a genre that has long since disappeared from linear television but is proving to be very effective in streaming. A testament to the series' success is the announcement of a film sequel, which was made public yesterday, taking advantage of the premiere of the final episode and the cast reunion event in Paris.

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Feeling dizzy in the face of technological developments is stupid. That's how the techno-optimist manifesto that went viral in 2023 makes you feel. A document promoted by Marc Andreessen, a serial entrepreneur known for being the father of the Netscape browser and Facebook. This manifesto uses an epic tone to present a series of statements based on the premise that technological progress is the only hope for humanity's great problems. To save humanity, it is necessary to let entrepreneurs do their work, in complete freedom, trusting in the proper functioning of free markets that have proven over time to adapt and evolve. This manifesto enthrones money as the driving force of economic growth that cannot be stopped. From the perspective of the manifesto, thinking about the social consequences, possible inequalities, or injustices, are unjustified fears that only make it more difficult. In fact, the document describes regulation, sustainability, social responsibility, and ethics as "zombie ideas," a remnant of communism.

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