Tech giant Amazon is open to acquiring companies in India, including in the quick commerce domain, as part of its inorganic growth strategy, CEO Andy Jassy, who is visiting India, told ET in an interview .
Asked whether Amazon would consider acquisitions in the quick commerce space and whether it might invest in homegrown AI companies such as Sarvam AI or Emergent Labs as part of India's sovereign AI push, the CEO said the company would evaluate potential targets based on their technology, customer experience, and talent.
"We like other companies, we're looking at companies we think have tech and customer experiences and talent that would be great for our customers, great in combination with our company," Jassy said. He added that Amazon has acquired companies that have "made an impact in our business in India" and would "continue to look at that actively."
On the AI front, Jassy did not confirm direct investments in Indian AI startups but highlighted Amazon's existing collaboration with the Indian government. "We work closely with the government on their AI capabilities. We have 8,500 GPUs we launched for startups … in conjunction with the government here. We've trained 10 million people on cloud and AI," he said.
Jassy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday and announced an additional $13 billion investment in India by 2030 to expand the country's AI and cloud infrastructure. This raises Amazon's planned India outlay to $48 billion by 2030, from $35 billion announced earlier .
During the week, he also met the Amazon India team, business leaders and startup founders in Bengaluru, and visited an Amazon Now microfulfillment centre in Mumbai.
Pushing the pedal on its quick commerce plans in India's hypercompetitive market, Amazon has said it plans to open more than 20 fulfilment centres and over 100 last-mile delivery stations this year.
