Amazon

The world’s largest ecommerce platform just got even bigger. Amazon took its first major step into Africa in May, launching Amazon.co.za in South Africa, where customers can now order goods for same or next-day delivery, or access 3,000 pickup locations. The company will have to compete with established retailers in the area, but the expansion comes on the heels of a stellar year for the tech giant, which saw its stock rise 75% in value in 2023—triple the rate of the S&P 500 index—as profits and demand for the company’s cloud-computing services grew. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is sitting pretty as the generative AI gold rush continues; in April 2023, the company launched Amazon Bedrock, giving cloud customers access to foundation models built by Anthropic, Mistral, and other AI heavy-hitters. Its recent performance made it the sixth-largest company in the world (by market value), returning founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos to the top of the world’s richest people list in March.