Amazon Web Services (AWS) is set to unveil its AI agent marketplace next week at its Summit in New York City, according to TechCrunch. Anthropic, which already has close financial and technical ties with AWS, is a launch partner for the new platform.

Neither AWS nor Anthropic responded to requests for comment, but two people familiar with the development confirmed the marketplace will go live on Monday, July 15.

The term “AI agent” remains loosely defined—generally referring to autonomous software programs powered by large language models that can make decisions, execute tasks, and interact with other digital systems on behalf of users. Despite the ambiguity, interest in agents has surged across the AI industry.

Startups and major players alike have begun building agent frameworks, but distribution remains fragmented. Most developers currently deploy their agents through isolated apps or proprietary platforms.

AWS’s marketplace aims to solve this fragmentation problem. According to TechCrunch, the platform will offer:

Like other online marketplaces, AWS will take a small percentage of revenue from agent installations. The revenue share AWS takes will be relatively small, especially compared to the marketplace’s potential to help startups reach new customers and generate additional income. The approach mimics software-as-a-service sales more than bundled AI offerings.

Anthropic’s inclusion as a founding partner reinforces its strategic alliance with Amazon, which invested $4 billion in the Claude developer and is reportedly preparing additional funding. Anthropic has emphasized “AI agents” as a core part of its product roadmap and now builds agent frameworks in-house while providing developers access to its Claude API to create their own.

By participating in the AWS marketplace, Anthropic stands to expand its enterprise reach—potentially winning over customers currently using agents powered by rival models like OpenAI’s GPT-4. The move could also encourage more developers to build on Anthropic’s stack, increasing usage and boosting revenue.

Anthropic recently reported reaching $3 billion in annualized revenue as of May 2025.

Amazon is entering a competitive but early-stage field. In April, Google Cloud launched its own AI Agent Marketplace, and Microsoft quickly followed with an Agent Store inside Microsoft 365 Copilot. Other enterprise platforms—including Salesforce and ServiceNow—have created similar agent distribution channels.

What remains to be seen is whether any of these marketplaces will generate meaningful traction for smaller AI startups and specialized agents. Distribution scale and enterprise trust will be key factors in determining success.

Q: What is the AWS AI agent marketplace?

A: It’s a centralized platform where businesses can browse, install, and purchase AI agents from startups and developers.

Q: Who is involved at launch?

A: Anthropic is a key launch partner; additional participants have not yet been disclosed.

Q: How does it work financially?

A: Startups can monetize their agents; AWS takes a small revenue share, similar to SaaS marketplaces.

Q: How does it compare to competitors?

A: Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and ServiceNow already offer agent marketplaces, but none have yet demonstrated dominant traction.

The launch of AWS’s agent marketplace signals a turning point in how AI tools are delivered, monetized, and integrated into enterprise workflows. Until now, most AI agents have been distributed through fragmented channels—often embedded in proprietary platforms or released as stand-alone demos with limited enterprise appeal. By creating a centralized marketplace, AWS is formalizing agent deployment as a commercial category, not just a developer experiment.

For startups, this presents a rare opportunity: a direct pipeline to enterprise buyers inside one of the world’s most widely used cloud ecosystems. For AWS, it’s a long-term strategic play to anchor the agent economy within its infrastructure—capturing not just cloud spend, but developer mindshare and application-layer innovation.

Anthropic’s role as a founding partner further underscores the shift toward agent-centric AI products. Unlike chatbots or APIs embedded in consumer-facing apps, agents are modular, reusable, and task-oriented—traits that make them ideal for enterprise automation, customer support, and internal tooling. Anthropic’s ability to attract developers through this marketplace could accelerate both revenue growth and ecosystem lock-in.

More broadly, this move reflects an emerging tension in AI between open distribution and platform consolidation. While startups may gain reach through AWS’s marketplace, they also become subject to Amazon’s rules, pricing structures, and competitive dynamics—raising important questions about the balance of power in the agent-driven future.

This is more than just a new product launch. It’s a sign that AI agents are becoming infrastructure—and the race to control that layer is now well underway.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.