Squawk Pod: Davos 2026: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy - 01/21/26 | Audio Only

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  January 21, 2026 at 17:55  |  31:08  |  CNBC
Speakers
Andy Jassy — CEO, Amazon
Becky Quick — Co-Anchor, Squawk Box

Summary

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks with Becky Quick at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos about the consumer, tariffs, AI, power demand, and Amazon's custom silicon. He says consumers are resilient but trading down, tariffs are creeping into prices, and retail margins are thin. He highlights Amazon's Trainium and Graviton chips, AI applications like Rufus and Bedrock, and the need for more power including SMR nuclear and renewables. He also discusses unprecedented AI compute demand and uncertainty around circular AI deals.

  • Andy Jassy discusses Amazon's AI strategy, custom silicon, and inference margins.
  • Consumers are resilient but trading down; high-ticket discretionary demand is hesitant.
  • Tariffs are starting to affect prices and could pressure thin retail margins.
  • Amazon is investing in power capacity, including SMR nuclear and renewable energy.
  • AI compute demand is unprecedented, but deal structures and investment outcomes are uncertain.
  • Amazon's AI applications include Rufus, Alexa+, Bedrock, and Nova Forge.
  • Jassy says AI will eventually reduce some job needs but create new roles.
  • Amazon is flattening management layers to move faster.
Ideas
Andy Jassy CEO, Amazon 9:40
Custom silicon gives Amazon inference margin edge.
Amazon's custom silicon strategy combines Trainium AI chips with Nova frontier models to deliver better price-performance and lower inference costs. Trainium 2 is about 40% more price performant than leading GPUs, fully subscribed, and a multi-billion dollar business; Anthropic is building its next Claude version on hundreds of thousands of Trainium 2 chips; Trainium 3 is another 40% better than Trainium 2. Graviton CPU is 40% more price performant than x86 and used by 90% of Amazon's top 1,000 customers. Jassy argues that if you are building a big inference business and want reasonable margins, not pursuing custom AI silicon leaves you structurally disadvantaged.
AMZN HIGH
Andy Jassy CEO, Amazon 13:58
Unprecedented AI compute demand needs monitoring.
The amount of compute being consumed right now is unprecedented. AI labs are consuming massive amounts of compute and need money to fund it, so they are finding ways to fund compute while compute providers invest in them. Data centers and power are in huge demand. OpenAI's $1.4 trillion infrastructure commitments are ambitious; Jassy does not know details and cannot tell which deals are guaranteed versus options, but the AI labs believe they need that much compute. This makes AI infrastructure a key area to watch, though not all investments will succeed.
AIQ DTCR MED
Andy Jassy CEO, Amazon 17:05
Power shortage drives nuclear/SMR demand.
Power has been short in the US and worldwide; there is a power shortage, better than 18 months ago but still not as plentiful as needed. Amazon could fulfill more demand if it had more capacity. Amazon has tried every way to enable more power, including unique things on the nuclear side, investing in SMR capabilities, being the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for five years, and funding its own power needs. This implies strong demand for power infrastructure and nuclear/SMR solutions.
Power infrastructure NLR HIGH
Andy Jassy CEO, Amazon 20:17
Consumers hesitant on high-ticket discretionary.
Consumers are resilient overall but are trying to trade down in price and look for bargains wherever they can. Jassy sees people a little more hesitant on higher-price discretionary items. This suggests a cautious stance on high-ticket consumer discretionary.
XLY MED
Andy Jassy CEO, Amazon 20:59
Tariffs squeeze thin retail margins.
Amazon and third-party sellers did a lot of pre-buying and forward staging in early 2025 to keep prices low, but that supply ran out in the fall. Tariffs are now creeping into some prices, with some sellers passing on higher costs, some absorbing them, and some doing in-between. Retail is a mid-single-digit operating margin business, so if costs go up by 10%, there are not many places to absorb it, making tariff-exposed retail unattractive.
XRT MED
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This CNBC video, published January 21, 2026, features Andy Jassy discussing AMZN, AIQ, DTCR, Power infrastructure, NLR, XLY, XRT. 5 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Andy Jassy  · Tickers: AMZN, AIQ, DTCR, Power infrastructure, NLR, XLY, XRT