Amazon is encouraging its engineers to prioritize its in-house AI coding tool Kiro over third-party alternatives, according to an internal memo seen by a news source. The memo, posted on Amazon’s internal news platform, stated, “While we continue to support existing tools in use today, we do not plan to support additional third party, AI development tools.” It added, “As part of our builder community, you all play a critical role shaping these products and we use your feedback to aggressively improve them.” This guidance effectively discourages employees from using popular AI coding tools like OpenAI’s Codex, Anthropic’s Claude Code, or offerings from startup Cursor.
Amazon has invested approximately $8B into Anthropic and signed a seven-year, $38B deal with OpenAI for cloud computing services. Despite these strategic moves, the company has faced criticism for trailing competitors such as OpenAI and Google in AI tool development. Kiro, launched in July, is Amazon’s proprietary AI tool for code generation, enabling engineers to create websites and apps using plain English commands. The tool incorporates technology from Anthropic, though not specifically Claude Code, as the company aims to strengthen its proprietary platform.
The internal memo, signed by Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President of AWS utility computing, and Dave Treadwell, Senior Vice President of eCommerce Foundation, emphasized, “We’re making Kiro our recommended AI-native development tool for Amazon.” This push coincides with Amazon expanding Kiro’s availability worldwide and adding new features to enhance its functionality. Spokespeople from Anthropic, OpenAI and Cursor did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while an Amazon representative confirmed the memo.
AI coding tools such as Codex, Cursor and Claude Code have grown popular for helping engineers rapidly develop new services, with Cursor recently valued at nearly $30B following a funding round. Earlier in October, Amazon revised internal guidance for Codex to “Do Not Use” after a six-month review, while Claude Code was briefly labelled the same before the decision was reversed. The memo reflects Amazon’s clear effort to make Kiro the preferred AI coding solution for its employees while reducing reliance on external competitors.
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