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Amazon is on a spending spree to grow its shipping business and isn’t content with only delivering products purchased on its own site. The company is now moving cargo for outside customers in its latest move to compete directly with FedEx and UPS.

“They want to be a new kind of U.S. Postal Service where everything can get everywhere, but also quickly,” said e-commerce consultant Chris McCabe, who was a seller performance investigator at Amazon from 2006 to 2012.

Amazon said in its first-quarter earnings report that capital expenditures were up a whopping 80% from a year earlier, helping it increase capacity of its in-house logistics network by 50% year over year. According to SJ Consulting Group, Amazon is now shipping 72% of its own packages, up from 46.6% in 2019. 

In 2014, Amazon started building its global transportation network from scratch. Seven years and 10 billion deliveries later, Amazon now has 400,000 drivers worldwide, 40,000 semi-trucks, 30,000 vans, and a fleet of more than 70 planes. Perhaps the biggest investment so far is the new $1.5 billion Amazon Air hub that opened in Kentucky in August.

For outside merchants, Amazon already offers a variety of shipping services. In the U.K., Amazon has a “logistics as a service” program — a business model that researchers from DePaul University predict Amazon will launch in the U.S. in the next 18 months, while Morgan Stanley predicted it could happen this year. According to one investigation, Amazon has already begun quietly transporting cargo on its planes for the U.S. Postal Service, although analysts say it won’t try to replicate the vast array of services offered by FedEx and UPS. 

“They’re not going to be just this blanket carrier that will deliver whatever package that you want them to, to whatever address,” said Dan Romanoff, who researches Amazon for Morningstar. “Amazon is sort of cherry-picking their routes. They want to run and sort the parcel sizes they want to deliver.”

Amazon’s algorithms also allow sellers to take advantage of LTL (less than load) truck space at discounted rates, while allowing Amazon to make money on otherwise wasted space. Amazon seller Keith Gregory just started using the program, called Amazon Freight. Gregory’s vitamin and supplement company, Highland Laboratories, is based in a 3,500-person town in Oregon and does about $4 million of annual sales on Amazon. Gregory says Amazon charges up to $1,700 less than FedEx or UPS Freight for some of his routes from Oregon to Southern California.

“For us being in a rural community, the fact that somebody is willing to cater to us, and they’re willing to accommodate pick-up schedules and not just say, ‘Okay, we’ll be there every day at 3:30,’ is also very attractive, too. So not just not just the rate piece, but the fact that they’re also willing to use their vast fleet of vehicles to help us with our logistics as well, which UPS and FedEx are not cooperative in that sense,” Gregory said.

Amazon also offers its Fulfilled By Amazon, or FBA, services for orders not made on Amazon.com, which explains why some orders from eBay, Walmart, and others arrive at your door in Amazon packaging.

“There were points in time in our company’s existence where really Amazon shipped 100% of our orders for all channels,” said Amazon seller Bernie Thompson, who uses what Amazon calls multi-channel fulfillment for many of the consumer electronics sold by his company, Plugable Technologies.

“If you go today and buy a Plugable product on eBay, it’s actually going to be coming from an Amazon warehouse and very often delivered by an Amazon delivery service,” Thompson said.

Former Amazon product safety manager Rachel Greer says the current shipping expansion is reminiscent of other times Amazon has used immense resources and data to disrupt an industry, such as with Prime Video and Amazon Web Services.

“I was part of the process for making sure that FBA sellers were compliant more than a decade ago. And they were like, ‘Well, we have excess capacity. Let’s use it,'” Greer said. “And then when AWS started, we had excess capacity. Let’s use it. So of course if Amazon develops a platform, it works well, and of course if it’s going to have excess capacity, they’re going to try to sell it to someone.”

Watch the video to hear more from former Amazon executives and online sellers about how third-party shipping is the company’s next big venture.

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YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others

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YouTube wipes out thousands of propaganda channels linked to China, Russia, others

Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Google announced Monday the removal of nearly 11,000 YouTube channels and other accounts tied to state-linked propaganda campaigns from China, Russia and more in the second quarter.

The takedown included more than 7,700 YouTube channels linked to China.

These campaigns primarily shared content in Chinese and English that promoted the People’s Republic of China, supported President Xi Jinping and commented on U.S. foreign affairs.

Over 2,000 removed channels were linked to Russia. The content was in multiple languages that supported Russia and criticized Ukraine, NATO and the West.

Google, in May, removed 20 YouTube channels, 4 Ads accounts, and 1 Blogger blog linked to RT, the Russian state-controlled media outlet accused of paying prominent conservative influencers for social media content ahead of the 2024 election.

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — all staunch supporters of President Donald Trump — made content for Tenent Media, the Tennessee company described in the indictment, according to NBC News.

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YouTube began blocking RT channels in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The active removal of accounts is part of the Google Threat Analysis Group’s work to counter global disinformation campaigns and “coordinated influence” operations.

Google’s second quarter report also outlined the removal of influence campaigns linked to Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Romania and Ghana that were found to be targeting political rivals.

Some campaigns centered on growing geopolitical conflicts, including narratives on both sides of the Israel-Palestine War.

CNBC has reached out to YouTube for further comment or information on the report.

Google took down more than 23,000 accounts in the first quarter.

Meta announced last week it removed about 10 million profiles for impersonating large content producers through the first half of 2025 as part of an effort by the company to combat “spammy content.”

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New Astronomer CEO gives first statement since Coldplay kiss-cam scandal

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New Astronomer CEO gives first statement since Coldplay kiss-cam scandal

Chris Martin of Coldplay performs live at San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy, in July 2017.

Mairo Cinquetti | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Astronomer‘s interim CEO said in his first public comment since unexpectedly taking over the role on Saturday that he hopes to move the tech startup past the viral moment that captured national attention last week.

Pete DeJoy was appointed to the top job due to the resignation of CEO Andy Byron, days after he was caught on video in an intimate moment with the company’s head of human resources at a Coldplay concert. Astronomer said over the weekend that it would begin a search for a new CEO.

“The events of the past few days have received a level of media attention that few companies — let alone startups in our small corner of the data and AI world — ever encounter,” DeJoy wrote in a LinkedIn post on Monday. “The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”

Byron was shown on a big screen at the concert in Boston on Wednesday with his arms around Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot. Byron, who is married with children, immediately hid when the couple was shown on screen. Lead singer Chris Martin said, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” A concert attendee’s video of the affair went viral.

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DeJoy helped start Astronomer in 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, and had been serving as chief product officer since earlier this year.

In May, Astronomer announced a $93 million investment round led by Bain Ventures and other investors, including Salesforce Ventures.

“I’m stepping into this role with a wholehearted commitment to taking care of our people and delivering for our customers,” DeJoy wrote. He added that “our story is very much still being written.”

Astronomer is commercializing the open-source data operations platform Astro. DeJoy wrote that customers “trust us with their most ambitious data & AI projects” and that “we’re here because the mission is bigger than any one moment.”

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Figma IPO could value design software maker at $16 billion

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Figma IPO could value design software maker at  billion

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma Inc., after the morning sessions at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 11, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Design software company Figma on Monday published an updated prospectus for its initial public offering.

The company said it expects to sell about 37 million shares at $25 to $28 each. That would generate as much as $1 billion in proceeds, between the company and selling shareholders.

The IPO could value Figma, led by co-founder Dylan Field, a fully diluted valuation of $14.6 billion to $16.4 billion. Field plans to sell 2.35 million shares, which could be worth as much as $65.8 million.

In a 2024 tender offer, investors valued the company at $12.5 billion. In 2022, Adobe had agreed to acquire Figma for $20 billion, but the deal was scrapped after regulators objected.

The flow of technology companies joining U.S. exchanges has slowed since late 2021. Concerns over inflation and a recession made some investors less interested in backing fast-growing but money-losing companies.

But a few technology stocks have become available in recent months. CoreWeave went public in March, and Circle and Chime shares started trading in June.

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Figma filed to go public on July 1, announcing plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FIG.”

On Monday, it provided preliminary results for the second quarter, showing $9.0 million to $12.0 million in operating income on $247 million to $250 million in revenue. That would imply year-over-year revenue growth of 39% at the low end and 41% at the high end. Growth in the first quarter exceeded 46%.

During the second quarter, Figma added clients and expanded business with existing ones. The company’s operating margin would be ticking up to 4% to 5%, up from 3% in the same quarter a year ago, based on the preliminary results.

Figma said it has authorized the issuance of “blockchain common stock” in the form of “blockchain-based tokens.” So far, though, Figma said it isn’t planning to issue this type of stock. In July, Figma disclosed investments in a stablecoin and a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Mike Krieger, a co-founder of Instagram who is now chief product officer of artificial intelligence model developer Anthropic, has joined the board. Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, is also joining the board, according to the filing.

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