WEBVTT - Adam Selipsky 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.320 Hi everyone, I'm Emily Changan. Today we're bringing you an 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:10.680 interview from Seattle and a visit to Amazon Headquarters. Jeff 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.280 Bezo shocked the world when he stepped down as CEO 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.759 of Amazon, but less shocking was his choice for successor. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.680 Andy Jassy wasn't only one of his longest tenure lieutenants, 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.599 but the architect of Amazon's multi billion dollar cloud business, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:29.080 Amazon Web Services, a moonshot that helped transform Amazon into 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.639 not just e commerce but enterprise Jugger dot Jass then 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.440 needed to find his own successor, tapping a former colleague 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.680 who helped grow a WS in its earliest days but 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.640 had since left to run Seattle software giant Tableau his 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.320 job to continue the reinvention of a WS and in 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.080 turn Amazon. Joining me on this edition of Bloomberg Studio 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.080 one point oh with the view of the spheres from 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:59.360 Amazon Headquarters, New AWS CEO Adam Slipski. Adam, thank you 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:01.480 so much for Joe us. Thanks for having me. It's 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:02.840 great to be with you. It's great to be here 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.760 in front of the spheres and everything. Yes, are really 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.679 unique biospheres with the hundreds of engangent plants from around 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:11.880 the world. It's a really special place. You worked for 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.480 a WS for eleven years and then went on to 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:18.080 become CEO of Tableau Software in then you get a 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.319 call from Amazon to come back and run a WS 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.880 as CEO. Tell me about that call. Well, I was 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.640 having a one on one at at my prior company, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.960 and my Apple News alerts went off like everybody else's did. 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.039 And a Jeff Bezos has taking on a new role, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.040 and Andy Jason's taking on the CEO role of Amazon, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.240 And of course Andy and I worked shoulder to shoulder 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.000 about twenty ft apart for eleven years, so of course 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.120 I reached out and congratulated him and we started talking 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.880 and um, you know, the conversation turned to just some 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.480 of the possibilities and next thing I know a little 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.760 while later, uh here I am back at Amazon, absolutely 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:01.960 the lie I didn't honor to be the CEO of 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.080 AWS and helping to shepherd this, uh this amazing business 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.040 for our customers in that process. Did you talk to 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.400 Jeff as well? I had some communication, but it was 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.919 you know, principally with Andyo. Of course was you knew 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:14.679 the A of U S business best and of course 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:17.040 was taking on the CEO role but yeah, there was 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:19.320 you know, contact as you might expect with a small 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:21.959 handful of other people. So what did Andy tell you 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.600 he wanted In the next chapter for a WS, Andy 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.960 reminded me nothing I needed reminding, but that it has 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.720 really still day one for AWS and for our customers. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:34.880 It is still so early in this business, and we 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:39.799 shouldn't think that just because the business has grown rapidly, uh, 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.080 or just because we're currently the leader in the in 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.000 the cloud, uh, that it's anything close to mature. And 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.440 so he really reminded me that we have to stay 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.079 hungry innovate as quickly as we ever have done in 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.399 the past. You're about half a year into the job. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.480 What changed while you were gone that surprised you? Well, 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.359 I think that's so many more customers have really adopted 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.280 the cloud and really decided that they're they're going all in. So, 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.040 I mean, it was a pretty decent sized business when 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:11.640 I left, but it's really grown and the customer base 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.080 has really expanded. And so now we have very deep 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.200 relationships at the CEO level, the ce IO level, across 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.640 every country, every industry, every use case, and we're regularly 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:29.880 interacting with the most senior people at our client organizations. 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.440 So you were working at real networks in the early 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.040 two thousands, and I understand you were offered a job 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.480 at AWS without even really knowing what it was. I 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.320 guess AWS was in stealth mode. It was very secret. 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:41.920 So it was it was, it was. It was hard 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:43.440 that you know, the company didn't want to talk too 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:45.160 much about it, but of course, you know, we had 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.880 to talk a certain amount about it. So the call 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.080 I got when something like, we have this initiative to 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.440 turn the guts of Amazon inside out and expose it 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.800 to other people, and it sounded intriguing, although I confessed 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.720 I didn't fully understand what that was all about. So 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.440 I can amen and started talking to Andy and a 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:05.000 few of the other senior leaders and eventually to Jeff, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.720 and I would have to say that even by the 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:11.120 time I took the job, I thought, I mostly understand 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.360 what they're talking about, and it sounds like a good idea, 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.400 and I'm in. But I also was like, well, you know, 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.600 we'll just have to see how it goes and uh 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.360 and and you know, Amazon is a big, big place, 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.120 and so I think we've got a lot of a 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.200 lot of intent to succeed here. And that's the thing 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.440 that impressed me was Amazon really had the desire and 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.520 the intent and the belief that this could be a 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.920 really good business. AWS comes out of stealth mode and 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.200 is the first to market with a cloud infrastructure service 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.760 in two thousand and six. How important was that first 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.719 start and and do you think AWS still has an 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.880 advantage today because of that? I think the time to 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:55.360 market advantage that we had, which was probably honestly five 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.560 to seven years head start before other companies really started 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.479 to take this seriously, was an enormou Frankly, it was 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.400 um just one of the biggest things that happened to 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:07.919 us in the early years because at the beginning a 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:09.720 lot of people didn't get it. I would get asked 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.280 a lot at two thousand and six, so what does 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:16.120 this have to do with selling books? And I even 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.960 had to slide with the kind of a pile of 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:19.880 books on it and a question mark next to it, 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.200 and the answer was, it has nothing to do with 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.360 selling books. But the technology which enables us to sell books, 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.960 being global, being at a massive scale, being secure, being 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.960 low cost, being highly performant. All that technology has everything 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.560 to do with offering these types of services. Externally. Now 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.120 AWS isn't a scrappy startup anymore, and you do have 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.240 big rivals. Even though AWS is still the leader, Microsoft 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.760 and Google are big rivals. How do you make sure 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.320 that being big doesn't slow you down. It's a great 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.360 question because we are currently the leader, and I mean 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.279 depending on which you know, third party, you you you 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:00.760 look at, we're probably a little bit more than twice 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.480 as big as as as number two. And it's really 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.080 important to continue to act as if you know, we're 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.719 insurgents and to be insurgents and not to start to 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:16.520 act like incumbents. And I like to talk about actually 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.680 managing the business. We want our senior leaders to be 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:22.359 managing product and managing customers. And I think as you 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.920 get bigger and you put more and more layers into 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.080 your company, it's it's all too frequent that you start 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:32.120 managing math, you start managing ratios and percentages and growth, 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.240 and I think it's it's a real disease if you 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.279 if you stray away from really focusing in a deep 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:40.520 way on the product you're building and in a deep 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.520 way on what your customers are telling you. And so 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.400 we try and organize both with our org structure as 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.000 well as just with with our culture and what we 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.240 choose to focus on, and really making sure that everybody 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.400 is thinking about one or both of those two things, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:54.839 product and customers. And if you keep even the most 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:57.679 senior leaders engaged at that level, then all of a sudden, 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.440 you you maintain the urgency and you keep acting like 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.120 an insurgent. We got to feel that urgency every day, 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.120 So keep acting like an insurgent. That's the motto. Absolutely, 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.599 and structure yourself and build a culture that allows you 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.560 to It's one thing to say it, but it's easy 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:12.880 to say it, but it's much harder to put in 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.520 place enabling mechanisms that enable you to do so. And 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.320 we focus a lot of effort on those mechanisms. Now, um, 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.960 do you think the cloud keeps getting bigger and that 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.040 AWS and Microsoft and Google just get bigger pieces of 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.760 an ever expanding pie, or at some point does it 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:30.480 become a zero sum game and that fight for market 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.440 share becomes more brutal and more bloody. Well, this is 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.840 a very large market segment. And if you look at 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.040 global I T spend, it's it's in the trillions of dollars. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.520 I've seen estimates like three trillion dollars, doesn't really matter 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.760 how many trillions it is. It's very, very large. And 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.560 we've always believed that this was too good a market 0:07:49.560 --> 0:07:52.600 segment opportunity for the really to only be one winner. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.640 And sure enough you've seen robust competition emerge and we 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.040 all compete vigorously, but uh, it is the segment is 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.240 just growing so rapid Leah, that I think, uh, really, 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.920 for us, we believe that you know, the winning business 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.480 strategy for a long time to come, and I would 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.240 maintain forever is to focus not on the competitors, but 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.360 to focus maniacally on customers and wake up every day 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.720 understanding exactly what it is that they need us to 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.880 build next, and then work backwards from there, back internally 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:22.920 to how can we build those things? And if we 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.200 if we do the best job at building the most 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.840 quickly the things that are most important for our customers, 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.680 then I'm really not worried about what the competitors will do. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.760 This is my conversation with Adam Selipski, CEO of AWS, 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.480 coming up insight into the newly minted CEOs relationship with 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:47.400 Amazon CEO Andy Jasey and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:51.720 an update on an AWS investigation into allegations of discrimination 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.280 and bias at the company. I'm Emily Jang. This is 0:08:55.280 --> 0:09:13.040 Bloomberg Studio at one point. Oh, stay with us. You 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.600 worked ten feet away from Andy Jase in the early days. 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.040 Tell us something about the Amazon CEO that no one 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:27.320 knows but you. You're gonna get me in trouble. We 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.240 has you know, I grew up in Seattle, and uh 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:33.560 Andy coming from New York has this fascination I don't 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.720 understand with with New York sports teams. So I've had 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.040 to endure that for that for a lot of years. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.120 Uh new Yorkers. Yeah, so what are you gonna do? 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.640 Although he's you know, he's he's I think, come, come, 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.560 come to adopt you know, some of the Seattle teams, 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.600 particularly the new hockey team, the crack in here as 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.800 he should exactly. Um So, how do you expect Andy 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.560 will be different from Jeff or how has Andy already 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:01.440 been different from Jeff? Well? I think you know, we're 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.600 all different as leaders. Um, I think it's all important 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.640 that we it's it's important that we all bring our 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.000 own stamp to it and and operate within ourselves. Uh 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.160 I don't think I would be a very good Andy. Uh. 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.079 I don't want to presume, but I would assume that 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:18.920 Andy would wouldn't be a great Jeff because you know, 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.839 Jeff's Jeff. Andy's Andy and UH and I'm me. So 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.240 I think that uh Andy will certainly bring a great 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.640 depth of experience from AWS, which is, you know, one 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.679 important part of the business, and uh will having operated 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:34.880 that business for so long, and I expect that will 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.440 also give him an opportunity although he was involved in 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.560 other parts of Amazon, certainly for for for a number 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.360 of years. Uh, we'll be able to bring a fresh 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.640 perspective to the whole company, just as I hope to 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.800 bring to AWS. And I think that fresh perspective is 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.959 often helpful. I think, uh, just the mere act of 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.520 change is useful for for the business, for customers, for employees, 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.480 and just to shake things up a little bit. So 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.000 I think, just a fresh perspective. How will you be 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:06.720 different from Andy? Well, I think that the world around 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:08.880 this is changing so so much that we're going to 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.200 have to be different. It doesn't matter what we did 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.880 yesterday and right after I joined, we actually added to 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:18.160 new leadership principles, which is very exciting ones around striving 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.960 to be Earth's best employer, and the second around focusing 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.480 on the fact that that success and scale bring broad responsibility. 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:29.520 And those are things about which I personally am very passionate, 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.199 and so I really personally look forward to digging in 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.120 and helping the company to figure out what are those 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.040 things that we have to figure out where can we 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.440 innovate to to be Earth's best employer? And then also 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.920 to figure out externally, what can we do to to 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.160 really be great citizens of our local communities, to be 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.920 great citizens of our national communities, and to be great 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.000 citizens of the global community. And I'm I'm I care 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:56.040 a lot about those things, as a lot of other 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:57.959 people do here, but I plan to put a good 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.160 amount of energy and time and folk because hopefully help 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.760 Amazon innovating all of those areas. How closely do you 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:06.520 work with Andy day to day? Does he, you know, 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.640 regularly weigh in on AWS decisions or not? Uh? Well, 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.840 he's he's got a pretty broad scope of things to 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.480 worry about now, so he's got a pretty uh, pretty 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.600 intense day job, I believe. Uh So he's really folkused 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.640 across the company as you would expect him to be. 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.920 But that being said, obviously AWS remains an important part 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.719 of Amazon, and so we touch based regularly, be it 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.840 in person or you know, via email, just on the 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:33.200 most important things going on in the business. Does Jeff 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:36.440 ever weigh in on AWS decisions? Yes, I mean really 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.959 from the beginning, Jeff was involved at the very very 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.680 beginning at some of the most fundamental decisions. How do 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.720 you price e C? Two? You know, what do you 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:49.240 name as three? What does the detailed page look like? Obviously, 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.920 over time, um, we the business grew, and but at 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.679 this Jeff was always available when we needed him. And uh, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.199 I certainly anticipate that will be the same going forward. 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.199 So is he still available now and what do you 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.959 what do you understand that jeff priorities are well, let's 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:08.959 let's just speak to his own priorities. But but but certainly 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.200 Jeff has been available when Uh. For example, we've been 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.080 doing our our our annual planning cycle, as many companies have, 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:18.480 and it's been great to have have have Jeff, you know, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.800 weigh in on really and where we're heading for the 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:23.080 next year and beyond, and to just make sure it's 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.160 easy to get focused on the details of the business 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.040 and it's it's great to have multi multiple people who 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:29.880 can help you pick your eyes up a little bit. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.640 Now you joined AWS in the middle of a pandemic, 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:34.240 you came back to a w S in the middle 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.440 of a pandemic that's hopefully moving into the rear view mirror. 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.400 Maderna is one of AWSS biggest customers. If it weren't 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.000 for the cloud, if it weren't for a WS, would 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:46.560 we have had a vaccine as quickly as we did, 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:49.920 I've got to tell you, But it's been an absolute 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.920 privilege to for us to work with Maderna because what 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.200 they're doing, obviously is literally life saving, and they've been 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.640 so innovative and so creative. So Darna took a drug 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.480 development process to get to the to a vaccine candidate. 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.920 That process would typically have taken them twenty months, and 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.040 doing that on a WS and conjunction with all the 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.240 the innovation on their side, reduced that twenty months to 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.439 forty two days. Forty two days to get the the 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.120 vaccine candidate, the m m R and a vaccine candidate 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:26.080 for for COVID nineteen and UH. That was really um 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.320 running on on running multiple parts in moderna on a 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.680 w S. So, uh, if you look at the drug 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.360 design part, they had their their drug design studio running 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.840 on AWS all the way to manufacturing with the new 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.920 digitized manufacturing that they call their their digital Manufacturing platform. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.800 So it's really end to end and the ability to 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.880 use massive amounts of resources and to pick the exact 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.480 type of service and capability for for for each part 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.960 of the job, and and and to really bring the 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.800 full set of resources to bear in addition to not 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.160 having to focus on the in the infrastructure and the 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.440 technology and rather letting you know, moderna focus on on 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:08.400 the all important job of drug discovery. So working in partnership, 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.400 it was was just magnificent to uh, to see what 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.200 they accomplished. Since you joined a WS, a number of 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.160 long time AW left S leaders have moved on to 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:23.560 Microsoft to strive to Tableau. Does that concern you, Well, actually, 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.920 retention has has been very good. If you you mentioned 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.040 the senior leaders. If if you look at the VP 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.080 plus ranks, the VP and above ranks at Amazon, the 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.520 average tenures is over a decade, over ten years, so 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:42.120 that's actually very very strong retention. So of course you're 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.400 always going to have some level of people coming and 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.920 people going and at the end of the day, that's 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.320 actually healthy for the business. You want new perspectives to 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.320 come in, of course, in the right proportion. Amazon has 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.720 opened an investigation after five fifty employees supported a petition 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:03.000 claiming a culture of discrimination, harassment, bullying, and bias. What's 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.440 the status of this, Well, we are incredibly focused and 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.160 I personally believe it's incredibly important to really have a 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:17.000 a very diverse, inclusive, and equable environment and we're going 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.880 to uh make sure that whatever it takes that we've 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.800 got that. So we believe that we're really doing a 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.800 lot of things to uh to deliver on that. And 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.920 I've got a lot of innovative efforts around bringing in 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.520 a diverse workforce, which we have to have both because 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.440 we're gonna serve our customers best they're diverse, we have 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.080 to match that diversity. And also I just believe it's 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:42.400 our responsibility and it's the right thing to do. Any 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.880 time there is any possibility that things are not something 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.480 is not gone the way we wanted to, we're going 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.960 to investigate it thoroughly. That's what we're in the middle 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.080 of doing in this case, and we'll make sure that 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.240 we're operating in a way that's consistent with our values 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.800 and and that's that's always the only goal. If you 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:01.720 could rewind to the W two thousands, the earliest days 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.080 of of a WS, is there anything you would have 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.679 done differently to build an inclusive culture, to start with 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.640 a more inclusive culture, to make sure that it didn't 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:15.720 become a you know, a boys club. Uh, well, I 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.159 I I don't think that's what we have. Um. I 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:23.199 think that we do have a really fun, exciting innovation 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:27.440 led an inclusive culture. And that being said, these are 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.800 hard problems. You know, we I think We've done a lot, 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.760 but we we are nowhere close to where we need 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.920 to be. We're gonna be restless and dissatisfied with our 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.919 our progress on d E and I, just as we 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.160 are with every other part of our part of our business. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:48.000 You're listening to my conversation with a WS CEO Adam Salipsky. 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:51.120 Up next, how AWS is navigating some of the most 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.520 challenging issues in corporate America from privacy to security. And 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.640 we look into the future, will Amazon have a role 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:02.480 in the metaverse. I'm Emily Chang. This is Bloomberg Studio 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:16.840 at one point. Oh, stay with us. A WS has 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.320 the biggest trove of sensitive corporate data in the world. 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:24.359 I'm curious how you think about the balance between data 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.760 and privacy and freedom and civil liberties in the modern era. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.720 I mean, there are governments, there are nation states around 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.920 the world that want that information. Hackers and criminals want 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.400 that information. Well, we're very clear to start with that 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.280 our first job is security. We often say security is 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.880 job zero. It was on the first page of our 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.960 of our operating plan pretty much every year, every year 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.199 that I can remember. But what about when governments requests 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:55.280 that information so subpoena that information. Sure, well, we are 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.600 very clear that our customers data is their data, so 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.880 the data belongs to our customers. Not everybody operates that way. 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.440 We we are not going to look at customers data. 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.920 We are not going to compete against our customers using 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:11.800 their data. Their data is their data. And furthermore, we 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.520 have all sorts of architectural best practices that our customers 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.760 should be and are using for any sensitive data and 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.640 and so a lot of that really relies around encryption. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.560 And so we built a lot of different encryption capabilities 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.119 so that any sensitive data and which could leak for 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.400 any reason, be to a government, be it to a hack, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:37.879 or be it to anyone else, any form of security breach, 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.119 that it's encrypted and useless to anybody else. Given the 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.760 the the broad array of encryption solutions that we that 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:50.360 we provide, it's actually very doable and powerful for our 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.560 customers to to safeguard their data. That way, Mark Zuckerberg 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.359 is making a big bet on the metaverse. Is AWS 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.720 going to have a role in the metaverse? I think 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:01.920 a but yes, already has a big role in the metaverse. 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.399 So I think the cloud enables the metaverse. So if 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:09.480 you if you think about all of the compute capacity, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.840 all of the storage, all of the machine learning which 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.720 is required to create compelling and delightful end user experiences 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.280 in the metaverse, a lot of that is already today 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.000 running on AWS. So um, if you take Epic Games 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.720 for example, so Epic runs Fortnite, you know, massively popular game, 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:33.880 fifty million users worldwide, and Epic runs almost everything on AWS, 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.760 from the back end servers to the analytics and and 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.280 everything in between. So I think that's a great example 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.120 of the of the metaverse at work and all that's 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.960 happening today on aws and we participate. That's only gonna 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.040 grow really rapidly in the future. How big do you 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.560 think it's going to be? Uh? Such an interesting sentence. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.560 The metaverse is real and yet it's virtual at the 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.080 same time. I think that if we continue to do 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.040 do what we've always done, which is to provide a 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.919 technology platform that allows organizations to transform, then these gaming 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.800 and entertainment and social media and other other companies will 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:10.399 be able to do what they do best, which is 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:13.479 focus on innovating on behalf of their end users. And 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.440 I think that the metaverse and in many other areas, 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.000 will will will be rich with inventions. So this next 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.399 conversation will have will happen in the spheres in the metaverse. 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.119 That that's where we'll next meet That that could be 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:29.639 I'll meet you in the metaverse, all right, see you there. Now. 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.080 I know that climate change, you know, and stopping climate 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.480 change and your data center footprint is a big passion 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:39.200 of yours. How fast will Amazon's data centers get to 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:44.280 carbon neutral? Amazon is already the largest purchaser of renewable 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:49.400 energy in the world, and we're we intend to be 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:55.560 renewable energy by the we originally said we actually accelerated 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.760 that by five years. And that's part of our our 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:03.120 broader Climate Ledge that Amazon created and to which we've 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.720 now gotten two hundred other organizations to sign on to. 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.240 And uh, the Climate Pledge is to be uh nets 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:13.879