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MacKenzie Scott trims Amazon stake by 42%, shedding $12.5 billion in shares

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MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has cut her stake in the e-commerce giant by 42% over the past year, according to a Bloomberg News report citing a recent regulatory filing.

Scott now holds 81.1 million Amazon shares as of September 30, down by about 58 million shares from the previous year. Based on Tuesday’s closing price, the sale represents roughly $12.55 billion in stock.

The filing also revealed that Bezos still beneficially owns more than 964 million Amazon shares, including 81.1 million over which he has sole voting authority. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment, and Reuters was unable to independently verify the filing.

Scott received her Amazon holdings in 2019 as part of her divorce settlement, amounting to a 4% stake valued at $36 billion at the time. Since then, she has become one of the world’s most active philanthropists, donating more than $19.25 billion to over 2,450 non-profit organizations through her charitable platform, Yield Giving.

Her large-scale giving efforts have focused on education, gender equality, racial justice, and community-based initiatives, often made without conditions or publicity — a sharp contrast to the structured foundations of many billionaires.

Anthropic to open first India office in 2026 amid AI boom

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Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company backed by Google and Amazon, announced plans to open its first office in India next year as demand for AI tools accelerates across the country.

The expansion marks a major step in Anthropic’s global growth, with India already standing as its second-largest market for the Claude chatbot, which rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Claude is popular among developers for its strong coding capabilities and multilingual features.

The new office will be located in Bengaluru, India’s leading technology hub, and operations are set to begin in early 2026. CEO Dario Amodei will visit India this week to meet with government officials and business partners, the company said.

India’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem — fueled by a billion internet users, rising corporate investment, and a strong talent base — has drawn top AI firms into competition. OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, is also preparing to open its first Indian office in New Delhi later this year.

Amazon Devices VP Rob Williams Exits Company After Major Product Launch, Marking Rare S-Team Departure

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Amazon is set to lose one of its top executives just days after unveiling its latest wave of hardware products. Rob Williams, vice president of device software and services and a member of CEO Andy Jassy’s elite S-team, has announced his departure, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.

Williams, who has been with Amazon for 12 years and joined the 29-member senior leadership team in late 2022, will step down at the end of 2025 after serving in an advisory capacity for the remainder of the year. His decision comes immediately following Amazon’s high-profile devices and services showcase in New York, where the company debuted new Echo smart speakers, color Kindles, and upgraded Fire TV models.

In the memo, Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, praised Williams for his influence on “the software and experiences of nearly all the products we’ve created and shipped.” Panay added that Williams had decided to “retire from Amazon,” though his future plans remain undisclosed.

Panay also announced a reorganization within the devices division, including the integration of the Alexa Smart Vehicle team into the main Alexa group and the promotion of Tapas Roy—previously head of Fire TV engineering—to succeed Williams as VP of device software and services.

Williams confirmed his exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he had been planning his departure for much of the year but stayed on to see through the recent product launches. “No one else has anything like it,” he wrote, referring to Vega, Amazon’s new proprietary operating system for Fire TV devices that aims to replace Google’s Android software with faster performance and lower costs.

The departure of an S-team member is considered highly unusual inside Amazon. The group serves as Jassy’s closest circle of advisers and is often viewed as the inner sanctum of corporate leadership within the company.

Williams leaves amid continued turmoil in Amazon’s devices division, which has struggled to find profitability. The unit has undergone multiple layoffs and has been slow to roll out its revamped Alexa voice assistant featuring generative AI capabilities. Despite these challenges, Amazon remains committed to expanding its devices ecosystem, including the launch of Fire tablets running Android and the rollout of Vega OS-powered hardware later this year.

Amazon confirmed Williams’s departure but declined to comment further.

His exit marks a significant leadership shake-up within Amazon’s long-term effort to reinvent its hardware strategy around AI and custom software—a mission that remains critical as competition from Google, Apple, and Samsung intensifies.