Ripping you off Stage 3
AWS invented on-demand surplus for builders, then layered 200+ services and data egress economics that make leaving costly. The documented recent change is a quiet GPU price rise, landing on customers held in place by heavy workflow lock-in. Stage 3.
- Since
- 2006
- Category
- Developer platforms
- VC-backed
- Yes
- Public
- Since 1997 (NASDAQ: AMZN)
- Website
- aws.amazon.com
Why it’s rated 3
The criteria it meets, with sources · Method
- Alignment 0 of 3
- None
- Lock-in 1 of 4
-
- L3 Hardware or workflow
- Extraction 1 of 7
-
- E1 Pay more for the same Jan 4, 2026
- Decline 0 of 3
- None
Result Two or more extraction criteria, or lock-in plus at least one, so stage 3.
News signals
Sourced reporting, tagged by strategy
Jan 4, 2026
Nov 22, 2024
Amazon invests another $4 billion in Anthropic as AWS becomes primary training partner
AI upsellMarket consolidation