Amazon on Monday launched a general-purpose AI agent and new website to interact with its custom artificial intelligence models. The moves are the latest in an AI push that was popular on Wall Street last year, though Amazon stock continued an eight-week slide amid concerns about tariffs.
The tech behemoth said its new Amazon Nova Act AI agent can reliably perform basic tasks inside a web browser, such as setting an exact time to order a food delivery each week. It is the first product launched from Amazon AGI SF Lab, a research group in San Francisco that the company formalized in February. Amazon Nova Act competes with web-browser agents launched by ChatGPT creator OpenAI, Google parent Alphabet and AI startup Anthropic.
Amazon plans to spend more than $100 billion on capital expenditures this year, with Chief Executive Andy Jassy telling analysts in February that much of the spending will focus on AI. Further, Amazon has positioned its AWS cloud-computing arm as a neutral party in the battle for AI supremacy. Its Amazon Bedrock product offers developers access to AI models from Meta Platforms, Anthropic, DeepSeek and others.
But Amazon has been steadily expanding its own AI model offerings. Jassy announced the Nova AI models at the AWS annual customer conference in December. Amazon on Monday also launched a new website allowing developers to experiment with the Nova models.
Amazon Stock On Eight-Week Losing Streak
Meanwhile, on the stock market today, Amazon stock fell 1.2% to close at 190.26. Shares fell during a down day for stocks overall. Investors are sizing up the impact of the upcoming April 2 "Liberation Day," where President Donald Trump has pledged to impose tariffs on a range of imported goods.
Amazon stock has been hit hard by concerns about tariffs and the broader U.S. economy in recent weeks. Amazon's current stretch of closing lower for eight consecutive weeks is its longest losing streak since April 2022, according to IBD MarketSurge. Amazon stock lost 30% during that slide and did not recover fully until late 2023.
The current slump for Amazon stock began with its fourth-quarter results in early February, which beat earnings estimates but included a lower-than-expected sales forecast for Q1. Shares have tumbled 22% from a record high of 242.52 reached Feb. 4 and are down 15% overall year-to-date.
Jefferies Cuts Amazon Target
Jefferies analyst Brent Thill on Monday reiterated his buy rating on Amazon stock but cut his price target to 250 from 275. He cut price targets by 10% across software stocks in his coverage in a client note early Monday.
"Uncertainties around tariffs and DOGE are gradually impacting spending decisions across the tech sector," Thill wrote. "The risk of estimates going lower has translated to lower share prices and valuations, with the IGV down 10% year-to-date and broader software multiples declining by 2% accordingly."
IGV refers to the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF, an industry index focused on enterprise software companies.
Meanwhile, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated an outperform call for Amazon stock in a client note Sunday. But he said Amazon marketplace sellers appeared concerned about the impact from tariffs during conversations at a recent industry conference.
"Most sellers are not sure at the moment how potential tariffs will impact their pricing and pricing strategy," Mahaney wrote. "Many sellers suggested that they have a strong working relationship with their manufacturer and trying to figure out who will absorb more of the tariffs, but it is clear that tariffs will hit both sides."
