Amazon Mandates Internal AI Coding Tool Kiro Over Third-Party Competitors

Amazon Restricts External AI Tools in Favor of Internal System

Amazon has issued an internal directive instructing employees to cease using third-party AI coding tools and instead adopt its proprietary system, Kiro, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters 2

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. The guidance specifically discourages the use of popular AI development tools including OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude Code, and Cursor, despite Amazon's substantial financial investments in some of these competing companies 1

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Strategic Push for Proprietary AI Development

The memo, signed by senior AWS and e-commerce executives Peter DeSantis and Dave Treadwell, frames the initiative as essential for refining Kiro and improving Amazon's competitive position in AI development 1

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. "While we continue to support existing tools in use today, we do not plan to support additional third party, AI development tools," the internal communication stated 2

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Kiro, Amazon's homegrown AI tool for code generation, enables developers to create websites and applications using plain English commands. The system relies largely on versions of coding tools from Anthropic, though not specifically Claude Code 2

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Contradictory Investment Strategy

The directive presents a notable contradiction with Amazon's investment strategy. The company has poured approximately $8 billion into Anthropic and established a seven-year, $38 billion cloud computing deal with OpenAI . This financial backing of competitors while simultaneously restricting their tools internally highlights Amazon's complex position in the AI ecosystem.

The timing of this policy shift is particularly significant as Amazon works to counter perceptions that it lags behind rivals such as OpenAI and Google in advanced AI tool development 1

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. The company recently expanded Kiro's availability to a worldwide audience with new features, positioning it as the recommended AI-native development tool for Amazon employees.

Previous Tool Restrictions and Market Context

This latest guidance follows Amazon's October decision to designate OpenAI's Codex as "Do Not Use" after a six-month assessment period. Claude Code also briefly received the same designation before the restriction was reversed .

The competitive landscape for AI coding tools has intensified significantly, with companies like Cursor achieving a valuation of nearly $30 billion following recent funding rounds. These tools have become increasingly popular among engineers for rapidly developing new services and applications .