Amazon is launching prescription drug kiosks at some One Medical offices in Los Angeles, the company announced Wednesday, in a move that could disrupt brick-and-mortar pharmacy businesses.

The kiosks are operated by Amazon Pharmacy and work similar to a vending machine, disbursing prescriptions for patients “within minutes” of their doctor visit, the company said.

Each machine can stock hundreds of prescriptions, such as antibiotics, inhalers and blood pressure treatments, with inventory that’s tailored to specific locations.

“We know that when patients have to make an extra trip to the pharmacy after seeing their doctor, many prescriptions never get filled,” said Hannah McClellan, Amazon Pharmacy’s vice president of operations. “By bringing the pharmacy directly to the point of care, we’re removing a critical barrier and helping patients start their treatment when it matters most — right away.”

The company is deploying its prescription vending kiosks as pharmacy chains, including Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens, have struggled with falling drug margins. They also face growing competition for sales of higher-margin items like candy and paper towels from players such as Amazon and Walmart.

Rite Aid last week closed all of its remaining stores after more than 60 years in business, while Walgreens and CVS have also shuttered locations in recent years.

Amazon has for years worked to push deeper into multitrillion-dollar U.S. health-care industry, which is notoriously complex and inefficient.

The company in 2018 acquired online pharmacy PillPack for about $750 million, and launched its own offering two years later called Amazon Pharmacy. It then bought primary-care clinic One Medical in 2022 for $3.9 billion, the third-largest acquisition in its history. Amazon also experimented with its own telehealth service before shuttering it in 2022.

Earlier this year, Amazon restructured its health-care businesses into six units “to move faster and continue to innovate,” after a handful of top health executives departed, CNBC previously reported.

Amazon will start rolling out the kiosks at One Medical clinics in downtown LA, West LA, Beverly Hills, Long Beach and West Hollywood. The company said it expects to add more One Medical offices and other locations “soon after.”

“Over time, we see real potential for this technology to extend to other environments — anywhere quick access to medication can make a difference,” McClellan said in an email.

Before patients can use the kiosk, their provider must first send a prescription to Amazon Pharmacy, where it’s verified by one of the company’s pharmacists. Users complete their order in the Amazon app, then scan a QR code at the kiosk.

A remote pharmacist completes a final check of the order before the medication is dispensed, the company said. Patients can also speak with the pharmacist through the kiosk via video or phone call.

McClellan said the kiosks aren’t meant to replace pharmacists “but to bring their expertise closer to the point of care.”

“This model keeps pharmacists at the center of the care experience while expanding how and where they can support patients,” she added.

At launch, the kiosks won’t be available to telehealth patients, only those who receive in-person care at One Medical. Patients aren’t required to be a One Medical member to use the kiosks.

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Anthropic on Wednesday said it plans to open its first office in India, entering a market where artificial intelligence usage is growing and its rival OpenAI is already making headway.

The Amazon-backed AI firm, valued at $183 billion, said it plans to open an office in Bengaluru in early 2026. It will be the company’s second office in Asia after Tokyo, Japan.

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, is visiting India this week to meet with public officials and enterprise partners, the company said.

AI adoption among both consumers and businesses is expected to ramp up quickly in India. More than 90% of workers in the county already use AI, according to Boston Consulting Group, marking the highest adoption in the world.

“India is compelling because of the scale of its technical talent and the commitment from the Indian government to ensure the benefits of artificial intelligence reach all areas of society, not just concentrated pockets,” Amodei said in a press release.

Anthropic said its focus in India will be deploying AI for “social impact” in sectors like education and healthcare, as well as “supporting key industries through strategic partnerships.”

Claude is Anthropic’s key product and challenger to OpenAI. Anthropic said it would launch “enhanced performance” in Hindi for Claude, as well as nearly a dozen other languages spoken in India. Anthropic said India currently ranks second in terms of Claude usage, behind the U.S.

The company’s expansion into India comes as rival OpenAI has stepped up its push into the country this year. OpenAI launched a low-cost subscription plan for its flagship ChatGPT product and is also reportedly planning to open an office in the country.

Anthropic has some catching up to do, however. Claude was downloaded 118,000 times in August in India, versus 10.3 million ChatGPT downloads and 6.4 million of Perplexity, according to analytics firm Appfigures.

The India push is part of a broader global expansion plan for Anthropic as it grows its international workforce and looks to onboard more enterprise customers.

SoftBank Group on Monday said it had agreed to buy the robotics division of Swiss engineering firm ABB for $5.4 billion, as the Japanese giant looks to bolster its artificial intelligence plays.

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval globally, means ABB will no longer look to spin off its robotics business as a separately listed company.

“SoftBank’s next frontier is Physical AI. Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics — driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward,” Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said in a statement.

Artificial Super Intelligence, or ASI, is Son’s idea of AI that is 10,000 times smarter than humans.

Son has looked to position SoftBank at the center of the potential AI boom through investments and acquisitions in different areas of technology. SoftBank owns chip designer Arm, for example, and has a major stake in OpenAI.

SoftBank already has some robot-related investments, including AutoStore Holdings and Agile Robots.

The Japanese conglomerate is not new to robotics. In 2012, SoftBank took a majority stake in a French company called Aldebaran. Two years later, the two companies launched a humanoid robot called Pepper — a bet that ultimately flopped, but robotics has now re-emerged as a key focus for the Japanese giant.

Morten Wierod, who became CEO of ABB in August 2024, has pushed the spin-off of the company’s robotics unit as a strategic move.

ABB said in a statement that the sale “will create immediate value to ABB shareholders.” The company said it will use the proceeds from the transaction “in line with its well-established capital allocation principles.”

ABB said it expected cash proceeds of approximately $5.3 billion. The expected separation cost is around $200 million, about half of which is already in ABB’s 2025 guidance.