Amazon Writes the Final Chapter for Mechanical Turk as It Pours Resources into Homegrown Chips

Amazon is drawing a line under one of the earliest pillars of its artificial intelligence strategy. The company will stop accepting new customers on its Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing platform from July 30, marking the end of a service that for more than two decades relied on human “click workers” to train algorithms. The reason is a paradox of progress: the very AI models those workers helped develop — modern large language models and generative systems — have now made much of the manual labor redundant.

Existing users will continue to receive security updates, but no new features are planned. Instead, Amazon is steering data preparation work toward more tightly controlled alternatives such as SageMaker Ground Truth, part of a broader push to replace open crowdsourcing with closed, managed networks. The writing had been on the wall since at least 2023, when reports surfaced that many Mechanical Turk workers themselves were using AI language models to complete tasks, degrading the quality of the training data.

The move comes as Amazon simultaneously doubles down on proprietary silicon. Amazon Web Services has instructed its suppliers to increase deliveries of custom ASIC chips — specifically the Trainium family — by 20% to 30% above previous expectations in the third quarter of 2026. Production of the next-generation Trainium v3 is scheduled to begin in early 2026. For the current generation, ASIC shipments are expected to more than double in 2025, with further growth of around 20% penciled in for 2026.

The chip strategy is designed to reduce Amazon’s dependence on Nvidia’s graphics processors, which have dominated the AI training market. Custom ASICs offer better energy efficiency and lower latency for inferencing tasks, and they give Amazon more control over its hardware roadmap at a time when capital expenditure is ballooning. Analysts estimate the company could pour as much as $200 billion into infrastructure by the end of 2026 to support its AI ambitions.

A mixed picture on Wall Street

The stock currently trades at €213.65, up 0.54% on the day and showing a year‑to‑date gain of 10.52%. That puts it about 10% below the 52‑week high of €238.05, reached in early May. The price sits between the 50‑day moving average of €219.73 and the 200‑day average of €200.55 — a technical picture that suggests short‑term caution but a still‑intact long‑term uptrend.

Inside the company, a series of stock sales by top executives has drawn attention. CEO Andy Jassy, AWS chief Matthew Garman, Amazon Stores chief Douglas Herrington, and Senior Vice President David Zapolsky have all sold shares in recent months. All transactions were executed under pre‑arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plans, which are designed for wealth diversification and are not typically interpreted as bearish signals. Garman’s sales in May, for instance, were based on a plan set up in May 2025.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Amazon?

Institutional investors show no clear consensus. Value Partners Investments boosted its position by 15.5% in the first quarter, while Lewis Asset Management added 9.7%. Pictet Asset Management, meanwhile, trimmed its stake by 3%.

AWS growth fuels optimism, regulation clouds the horizon

The cloud business remains Amazon’s most powerful engine. AWS reported revenue growth of 28% in the first quarter of 2026 — the fastest pace in nearly four years. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global overwhelmingly rate the stock a “Strong Buy,” with a consensus price target of roughly $312.91, implying upside of almost 29% from current levels.

Yet the regulatory headwinds are intensifying. Amazon’s electricity consumption rose 34% in 2025, and its greenhouse gas emissions climbed 16%, direct fallout from the rapid build‑out of AI data centers. The company now covers its entire global electricity use with renewable energy, and carbon intensity has fallen 38% since 2019, but absolute emissions keep rising with the sheer scale of growth. Regulators, utilities, and local communities are paying closer attention to how data centers consume power and water.

Additional legal and compliance battles are piling up. Amazon faces “gatekeeper” designation under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, a $2.25 million settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and a recent warning from the Food and Drug Administration over unapproved drugs sold through its Fulfillment by Amazon service.

Beyond the cloud and the courtroom

Away from the AI arms race, Amazon’s streaming business is gaining traction. Prime Video saw international viewership for NBA broadcasts surge 28% in the first year of its global media rights deal, driven particularly by audiences in Europe and Asia.

On the logistics front, the company continues to convert its delivery fleet to electric power. The number of electric vans on the road worldwide jumped 68% last year, reaching over 52,700 vehicles. That shift is part of a broader re‑engineering of Amazon’s physical operations, as the company transforms from an online marketplace into an efficiency‑driven, AI‑powered logistics machine — one that increasingly depends on robots and custom chips rather than human click workers.