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Amazon has become a growing threat to digital ad incumbents Meta and Google, attracting billions of dollars a quarter from brands that are trying to reach the masses of consumers who swarm to the site on a daily basis.

But it’s no longer just about digital ad dollars, and Amazon’s inaugural presence at this year’s Upfronts events is the clearest indication that the e-commerce giant is prepared to take on traditional media.

On Tuesday, Amazon gave its first presentation during the Upfronts, an annual advertising sales event featuring media heavyweights like Disney and Comcast‘s NBCUniversal. Amazon’s Prime Video and other streamers would historically be featured at Newfronts, which is digital media’s take on Upfronts. But internet video platforms have had a bigger presence on the main stage as Netflix and Google’s YouTube joined the party in recent years.

Amazon is making a fresh pitch to the ad industry as it nears a critical turning point. Advertisers continue to spend more on digital than linear TV. This year, they’re projected to spend roughly $18.8 billion on traditional TV ads during Upfronts, an increase of 1% from a year earlier, according to eMarketer. By contrast, digital advertising during Upfronts and Newfronts is forecast to grow 32% to about $16.5 billon this year.

More ad-supported streaming platforms have also entered the ring, providing advertisers yet another alternative to traditional TV, where viewing has shrunk. Amazon announced it would begin showing ads on its Prime Video streaming service in January, adding to its stable of ad offerings like free streaming TV service Freevee, and Twitch, its livestreaming site popular among gamers.

The company stands to generate up to $3 billion in U.S. ad revenue this year from an estimated 58 million households who will see commercials in Prime Video content, TD Cowen analysts wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. The firm has a buy rating on Amazon’s stock.

“When I joined Amazon nearly four years ago, the No. 1 question all of you asked was, ‘When are you going to show ads on Prime Video?'” Alan Moss, Amazon’s vice president of global ad sales, said onstage. “Well, at Amazon we like to deliver for our customers. By introducing ads on Prime Video, we’ve created the largest ad-supported premium streaming service in the world.”

The company said its ad-supported streaming content now reaches 175 million U.S. viewers every month, up from more than 120 million in 2021. It also disclosed that Prime Video counts 200 million global customers, 115 million of whom are in the U.S.

Amazon’s advertising business still primarily makes money from charging brands to promote their products across its properties in a variety of ways, from sponsored listings on its website to ad spots on Fire TV streaming devices. Revenue in the ad business climbed 24% in the first quarter to $11.8 billion.

Amazon has also spent billions on live sports programming in a bid to attract more streaming viewers and ad dollars. The company recently reaffirmed its commitment to live sports, snagging the exclusive rights to a National Football League playoff game next season.

Amazon executives on Tuesday tried to win over advertisers with a packed programming slate, and a cavalcade of celebrities like Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal to tout new original content. The company also emphasized its “billions of customer signals” that allow brands to target ads.

Paul Kotas, who runs Amazon’s ad business, said the company “made a big bet” 18 years ago when it first rolled out ads on its website. He showed how the business has evolved to include digital video ads on Prime Video.

“We’ve been working towards this moment for years, and that’s why being here on stage today means so much,” Kotas said. “And of course, at Amazon, we’re never done innovating.”

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

WATCH: Advertising volume won’t go down, it’ll just shift

Advertising volume will shift between streaming players, says Propagate's Ben Silverman

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Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

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December 13, 2025

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Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

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Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

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December 12, 2025

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Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk appears on a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oracle on Friday pushed back against a report that said the company will complete data centers for OpenAI, one of its major customers, in 2028, rather than 2027.

The delay is due to a shortage of labor and materials, according to the Friday report from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people. Oracle shares fell to a session low of $185.98, down 6.5% from Thursday’s close.

“Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “There have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.”

The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years.

“We have a good relationship with OpenAI,” Clay Magouyrk, one of Oracle’s two newly appointed CEOs, said at an October analyst meeting.

Doing business with OpenAI is relatively new to 48-year-old Oracle. Historically, Oracle grew through sales of its database software and business applications. Its cloud infrastructure business now contributes over one-fourth of revenue, although Oracle remains a smaller hyperscaler than Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

OpenAI has also made commitments to other companies as it looks to meet expected capacity needs.

In September, Nvidia said it had signed a letter of intent with OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia equipment for the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. The first phase of that project is expected in the second half of 2026.

Nvidia and OpenAI said in a September statement that they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”

But no announcement has come yet.

In a November filing, Nvidia said “there is no assurance that we will enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity.”

OpenAI has historically relied on Nvidia graphics processing units to operate ChatGPT and other products, and now it’s also looking at designing custom chips in a collaboration with Broadcom.

On Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out a timeline for the OpenAI work, which was announced in October. Broadcom and OpenAI said they had signed a term sheet.

“It’s more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion,” Tan said on Broadcom’s earnings call. “And that’s, I call it, an agreement, an alignment of where we’re headed with respect to a very respected and valued customer, OpenAI. But we do not expect much in 2026.”

OpenAI declined to comment.

WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

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AI order from Trump might be ‘illegal,’ Democrats and consumer advocacy groups claim

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December 12, 2025

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AI order from Trump might be ‘illegal,’ Democrats and consumer advocacy groups claim

“This is the wrong approach — and most likely illegal,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a post on X Thursday.

“We need a strong federal safety standard, but we should not remove the few protections Americans currently have from the downsides of AI,” Klobuchar said.

Trump’s executive order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to create a task force to challenge state laws regulating AI.

The Commerce Department was also directed to identify “onerous” state regulations aimed at AI.

The order is a win for tech companies such as OpenAI and Google and the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which have all lobbied against state regulations they view as burdensome. 

It follows a push by some Republicans in Congress to impose a moratorium on state AI laws. A recent plan to tack on that moratorium to the National Defense Authorization Act was scuttled.

Collin McCune, head of government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz, celebrated Trump’s order, calling it “an important first step” to boost American competition and innovation. But McCune urged Congress to codify a national AI framework.

“States have an important role in addressing harms and protecting people, but they can’t provide the long-term clarity or national direction that only Congress can deliver,” McCune said in a statement.

Sriram Krishnan, a White House AI advisor and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, during an interview Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said that Trump is was looking to partner with Congress to pass such legislation.

“The White House is now taking a firm stance where we want to push back on ‘doomer’ laws that exist in a bunch of states around the country,” Krishnan said.

He also said that the goal of the executive order is to give the White House tools to go after state laws that it believes make America less competitive, such as recently passed legislation in Democratic-led states like California and Colorado.

The White House will not use the executive order to target state laws that protect the safety of children, Krishnan said.

Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, called Trump’s order “mostly bluster” and said the president “cannot unilaterally preempt state law.”

“We expect the EO to be challenged in court and defeated,” Weissman said in a statement. “In the meantime, states should continue their efforts to protect their residents from the mounting dangers of unregulated AI.”

Weissman said about the order, “This reward to Big Tech is a disgraceful invitation to reckless behavior
by the world’s largest corporations and a complete override of the federalist principles that Trump and MAGA claim to venerate.”

In the short term, the order could affect a handful of states that have already passed legislation targeting AI. The order says that states whose laws are considered onerous could lose federal funding.

One Colorado law, set to take effect in June, will require AI developers to protect consumers from reasonably foreseeable risks of algorithmic discrimination.

Some say Trump’s order will have no real impact on that law or other state regulations.

“I’m pretty much ignoring it, because an executive order cannot tell a state what to do,” said Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone, a Democrat who co-sponsored the anti-discrimination law.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a law that, starting in January, will require major AI companies to publicly disclose their safety protocols. 

That law’s author, state Sen. Scott Wiener, said that Trump’s stated goal of having the United States dominate the AI sector is undercut by his recent moves. 

“Of course, he just authorized chip sales to China & Saudi Arabia: the exact opposite of ensuring U.S. dominance,” Wiener wrote in an X post on Thursday night. The Bay Area Democrat is seeking to succeed Speaker-emerita Nancy Pelosi in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump on Monday said he will Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to “approved customers” in China, provided that U.S. gets a 25% cut of revenues.

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