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Amazon will double the value of credits it offers some startups to use its cloud infrastructure, CNBC has learned, as the company faces heightened competition from Microsoft in artificial intelligence services.

Starting July 1, startups that have raised a Series A round of funding in the past year will be eligible for $200,000 in credits through AWS’ Activate program, up from $100,000 before, the Amazon cloud unit said in an email to venture capitalists this week. Seed-stage startups will still be eligible for $100,000 in credits, AWS said.

Two people briefed on the changes confirmed the credit increase, though they asked not to be named because the information is private.

Matt Garman, who was recently promoted to CEO of AWS after running sales and marketing, was meeting with founders in Silicon Valley this week, the people said. Garman told the execs that collaborating with startups would always be a primary focus, one of the people said, adding that Garman described AI companies as AWS’ ideal customers.

An AWS spokesperson confirmed the increase in credits and Garman’s visit to Silicon Valley. The spokesperson added that in the past, the $100,000 would expire in one year, while the $200,000 credit will now expire in three years.

Amazon, which is best known for its massive online retail operation, derives most of its profit from AWS, a business it launched in 2006, well before rivals Microsoft and Google hit the scene. AWS leads the market, with $25 billion in revenue in the first quarter, up 17% from a year earlier.

But Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are growing more quickly, and are benefiting from rapidly advancing AI models. Backed by Microsoft, OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022 on Azure, and has since attracted a wave of AI workloads to Microsoft from companies big and small. Google has a number of large language models, most notably Gemini.

Amazon has been trying to catch up in generative AI and has poured billions of dollars into OpenAI challenger Anthropic.

Last month, AWS CEO Adam Selipsky announced his resignation after three years running the business, with Garman named as his successor. During Selipsky’s time at the helm, Microsoft and Google increased their share of the cloud infrastructure market. One analyst told CNBC that Microsoft “ran laps around” AWS in generative AI.

Startups have long been fertile ground for cloud infrastructure companies, as they try and lure ambitious founders who could be building the next multibillion-dollar business.

In November, Microsoft announced a partnership with Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator that would provide participating startups with $350,000 in Azure credits and access to graphics processing units (GPUs) for training AI models, a spokesperson said. Microsoft has since extended the $350,000 credit incentive to other accelerators, including the AI Grant.

Startups enrolled in Microsoft’s Founders Hub program, which doesn’t require previous venture funding, can receive up to $150,000 in Azure credits over four years.

In addition to its Activate offering, Amazon has a new 10-week generative AI accelerator program. Participants will be able to access up to $1 million in cloud credits, according to the website.

Earlier on Friday, Amazon’s head scientist, Rohit Prasad, told employees that the company has hired David Luan, co-founder and CEO of AI startup Adept, along with some of Luan’s colleagues. “Amazon is also licensing Adept’s agent technology, family of state-of-the-art multimodal models, and a few datasets,” Adept said in a blog post.

WATCH: AWS will boost investments in Singapore’s cloud infrastructure by $9 billion

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Trump approves TikTok deal through executive order, Vance says business valued at $14 billion

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Trump approves TikTok deal through executive order, Vance says business valued at  billion

Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order approving a proposal that would keep TikTok alive in the U.S. in a transaction that Vice President JD Vance said values the business at $14 billion.

The deal satisfies the requirements of a national security law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or face an effective ban in the country, according to the executive order. Under the terms, which China must still approve, a new joint-venture company will oversee TikTok’s U.S. business, with ByteDance retaining less than a 20% stake.

Enterprise tech giant Oracle, Silver Lake and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund will be main investors in TikTok’s U.S. business, controlling a roughly 45% stake in the entity, while ByteDance investors and new holders will own 35%, CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier Thursday. 

No representatives from ByteDance were present at the signing, and the company hasn’t acknowledged that a transaction is taking place. No purchase price was mentioned, and there’s no indication that the Chinese government has made changes to laws that would be necessary for a deal to take place.

President Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the deal the go ahead. Vance said the Chinese government put up some resistance before the agreement.

Under the planned arrangement, Oracle will oversee the app’s security operations and continue providing cloud computing services for the new TikTok U.S. firm, Faber reported, citing sources familiar with the deal. Trump said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is involved in the ownership group and that his company is “playing a very big part.”

“It’s owned by Americans, and very sophisticated Americans,” Trump said at the signing. “This is going to be American operated all the way.”

ByteDance investors like General Atlantic, Susquehanna and Sequoia, are expected to contribute equity in the new TikTok U.S. entity, sources told Faber. ByteDance was reportedly valued at $330 billion last month. Analysts have previously estimated TikTok’s U.S. operations could be worth between $30 billion to $35 billion.

The deal does not involve the federal government taking an equity stake or a so-called golden share in TikTok’s U.S. operations, CNBC reported Monday.

Trump said over the weekend that conservative media baron Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch could be involved in the TikTok deal as well as Ellison and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell.

The president last week signed an executive order that extended ByteDance’s deadline to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations or be subject to a national security law originally signed by former President Joe Biden. The order prevents the Department of Justice from enforcing the national security law that would penalize app store operators like Apple and Google and internet service providers for providing services to TikTok’s U.S. operations.

WATCH: White House Press Secretary says Trump will sign TikTok deal.

White House Press Secretary says Trump will sign TikTok deal Thursday

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Oracle, Silver Lake & MGX will be main investors in TikTok U.S., sources say

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Oracle, Silver Lake & MGX will be main investors in TikTok U.S., sources say

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Oracle, Silver Lake & Abu Dhabi’s MGX will be main investors in TikTok’s U.S. business, sources told CNBC’s David Faber on Thursday. 

Those three entities will control roughly 45% of TikTok USA, Faber reported. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent, will own 19.9%, with the remaining 35% in the hands of ByteDance investors.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday backing the proposed deal that will keep the social media app running in the U.S. ByteDance has faced an ultimatum under a federal law requiring it to either divest the platform’s American business or be shut down in the U.S. That law passed with bipartisan support from members of Congress who expressed national security concerns about the app and its potent content algorithm.

Trump has been trying to keep the app afloat, repeatedly mentioning how important it was to his victory in November. Billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass is a major ByteDance investor through Susquehanna, and he also owns a stake in the owner of Truth Social, Trump’s social media company.

Backers of ByteDance, including General Atlantic, Susquehanna and Sequoia, are expected to contribute equity in the new TikTok USA, sources told Faber.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order delaying the divestiture deadline until Dec. 16.

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Microsoft cuts off cloud services to Israeli military unit after report of storing Palestinians’ phone calls

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Microsoft cuts off cloud services to Israeli military unit after report of storing Palestinians' phone calls

Microsoft President Brad Smith, left, speaks at a press conference on future visions for the development and application of artificial intelligence in education in North Rhine-Westphalia at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Berlin on June 4, 2025. To his right is Hendrik Wüst (CDU), Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, in front of the sign “From coal to AI.”

Soeren Stache | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Microsoft said Thursday that it has stopped providing certain services to a division of the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The company did not say which specific services it had stopped providing.

The decision comes after the software company investigated an August report from The Guardian saying the Israeli Defense Forces’ Unit 8200 had built a system for tracking Palestinians’ phone calls.

“While our review is ongoing, we have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and vice chair, wrote in an email to employees. “This evidence includes information relating to IMOD consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services.”

Microsoft’s decision to stop providing those services follows pressure from employees who have protested Israel’s use of the company’s software as part of its invasion of Gaza. Over the last few weeks, Microsoft has fired five employees who participated in protests at company headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

The move comes a week after a United Nations commission said that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians with its invasion of Gaza.

Microsoft told Israeli defense officials that it had decided to disable cloud-based storage an artificial intelligence subscriptions the agency was using, Smith wrote. He said Microsoft does not look at customer data for the type of review it conducted, and he thanked the British newspaper for its reporting on the development.

“As employees, we all have a shared interest in privacy protection, given the business value it creates by ensuring our customers can rely on our services with rock solid trust,” Smith wrote.

On Thursday The Guardian reported that unnamed intelligence sources had said Unit 8200 was planning to migrate its supply of the phone calls to Amazon Web Services, the market-leading public cloud. AWS did not immediately comment.

WATCH: Israel’s global standing is ‘desperately at risk because of the suffering of Palestinian civilians,’ says Sen. Chris Coons

Israel's global standing is 'desperately at risk because of the suffering of Palestinian civilians,' says Sen. Chris Coons

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