Amazon Web Services (AWS) is launching an AI agent marketplace next week and Anthropic is one of its partners, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
The AWS agent marketplace launch will take place at the AWS Summit in New York City on July 15, two people familiar with the development told TechCrunch. AWS and Anthropic did not respond to requests for comments.
AI agents are ubiquitous nowadays. And every single investor in Silicon Valley is bullish on startups building them — even if there is some disagreement on exactly what defines an AI agent. The term is somewhat ambiguous and is loosely used to describe computer programs that can make decisions and perform tasks independently, such as interacting with software, by using an AI model at the backend.
AI behemoths such as OpenAI and Anthropic are promoting it as the next big thing in tech. However, the distribution of AI agents poses a challenge, as most companies offer them in silos. AWS appears to be taking a step to address this with its new move.
The company’s dedicated agent marketplace will allow startups to directly offer their AI agents to AWS customers. The marketplace will also allow enterprise customers to browse, install, and look for AI agents based on their requirements from a single location, a source said.
That could give Anthropic — and other AWS agent marketplace partners — a considerable boost.
Anthropic, which already has Amazon’s backing and is reportedly in line for another multibillion-dollar investment from the e-commerce company, views AI’s future primarily in terms of agents — at least for the coming years. Anthropic builds AI agents in-house and enables developers to create them using its API.
AWS’ marketplace would help Anthropic reach more customers, including those who may already use AI agents from its rivals, such as OpenAI. Anthropic’s involvement in the marketplace could also attract more developers to use its API to create more agents, and eventually increase its revenues. The company already hit $3 billion in annualized revenue in late May.
Like any other online marketplace, AWS will take a cut of the revenue that startups earn from agent installations. However, this share will be minimal compared to the marketplace’s potential to unlock new revenue streams and attract customers.
The marketplace model will allow startups to charge customers for agents. The structure is similar to how a marketplace might price SaaS offerings rather than bundling them into broader services, one of the sources said.
Amazon is not the first tech giant to offer a marketplace for agents. In April, Google Cloud introduced an AI Agent Marketplace to help developers and businesses list, buy, and sell AI agents. Microsoft also introduced a similar offering, called Agent Store, within Microsoft 365 Copilot a month later. Similarly, enterprise software providers, including Salesforce and ServiceNow, have their own agent marketplaces.
That said, we have yet to see how successful these marketplaces are for smaller AI startups and enterprises seeking specific AI agents.