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Remember Bard? It was the original name of Google’s AI chatbot, but the Gemini brand long ago replaced it. Just as you’ve likely forgotten that history, you’re not likely to remember Rufus in 12 months’ time, either. Rufus, the name of Amazon’s AI-powered shopping chatbot, got tossed on Wednesday and replaced with Amazon’s well-established Alexa virtual assistant brand name.
I could make lots of jokes about what a terrible name Rufus was (although it was my grandfather’s first name, so I won’t do that). Let’s just agree that Amazon made the right call to adopt the name of a chatbot its customers already know. The name change is part of a broader overhaul of its shopping service to offer a bunch more AI-powered features that are likely to help Amazon fend off competition from generalist chatbots. (See our coverage of Amazon’s AI shopping evolution here and here.)
Most importantly, Amazon has made its main search bar more versatile. Try typing in something you’re looking for—say, “red sweater”—and you’ll get some AI Overviews text back about how to style a red sweater and differences in fabric choices shoppers should consider, above some product listings. Amazon says you can also ask questions in the search bar and get information in return, although in my tests today that was somewhat hit and miss.
In making these changes, Amazon is narrowing the distinction between the main search bar and the shopping chatbot known until today as Rufus—it’s that icon on the bottom corner of the Amazon mobile app or at the top of the desktop version.
Amazon seems to be following in the footsteps of Google, which has gradually evolved its search engine to bring it closer to the Gemini chatbot (including by introducing text dubbed AI Overviews!). It makes sense that both companies, which serve vast numbers of consumers globally, have taken their time in updating their search engines.
Most consumers don’t react well to abrupt changes in products they’re used to. And no one wants long answers when a short response will do. Amazon’s approach seems a smart way to balance those different requirements. Depending on how consumers respond, there has to be a chance that Amazon will do away with the separate shopping chatbot altogether at some point in the future.
To be sure, the AI overhaul of Amazon’s shopping site is still a work in progress. But let’s give Amazon the benefit of the doubt and assume it makes the experience more consistent. The question now is whether it can train people to use its site for detailed shopping research rather than gravitating to ChatGPT or Gemini for that.
AI Computing's Crunch
If you want some firsthand evidence of AI computing’s capacity crunch, the first-quarter earnings call from neocloud Nebius Group was most informative.
“We are typically seeing four or more customers competing for every GPU we bring online,” said Nebius Chief Revenue Officer Marc Boroditsky, speaking of graphics processing units, aka AI chips. Boroditsky added that, as had been the case for the past few quarters, Nebius had “sold out [chips] again” in the first quarter as “demand continues to significantly exceed available capacity.”
Nebius, a Netherlands-based rival to CoreWeave, reported 684% higher revenue for the first quarter. The company projects revenue for 2026 at between $3 billion and $3.4 billion, compared with $530 million in 2025. It’s no surprise that Nebius stock finished up 15.7% on Wednesday.
In Other News
• AI chip designer Cerebras Systems was expected to price its IPO Wednesday night at $185 a share, Bloomberg reported, well above the most recent preliminary range of up to $160.
• Shares of Cisco Systems jumped 18% in after-hours trading after the networking and security maker reported accelerating revenue growth of 12% for the March quarter and forecast 14% growth for the June quarter, thanks to AI-driven demand. Last fiscal year its revenue grew just 5.3%.
• Microsoft estimates it will have spent more than $100 billion on commercial agreements with OpenAI by the end of its fiscal year in June, executive Michael Wetter testified in court on Wednesday during the Elon Musk–OpenAI trial. That number includes the $13 billion Microsoft invested in OpenAI, as well as the costs of building and running infrastructure—including new data centers—for OpenAI to train and run its models.
• Anthropic’s latest version of its Mythos AI showed “notable capability jumps” in finding and exploiting undiscovered software vulnerabilities compared to an earlier version of the model, researchers at the U.K.’s AI Security Institute said Wednesday.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang got a last-minute invitation to join President Donald Trump’s trip to China, Trump revealed in a Truth Social post. After reports surfaced that Huang had been left out of a trip that included many other tech executives, including Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook, Trump called Huang and invited him, according to a person familiar with the situation.
• Tencent Holdings is gearing up to spend more on AI infrastructure after chip shortages began showing signs of relief. Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell said on an earnings call Wednesday that the company will spend significantly more in the second half of this year, as more China-designed AI chips become available “month by month.”
• Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Hyman will step down as CEO at the end of this week, the clothing rental company said Wednesday.
• Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said Wednesday that the company expects its annualized revenue from AI model and application services to surpass 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) in the current quarter through June, and to top 30 billion yuan ($4.42 billion) by the end of this year. It is the first time Alibaba has disclosed revenue figures for AI-specific services.
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