How much Amazon's CEO made in 2023 | Key takeaways from Andy Jassy’s annual letter

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s compensation for 2023 totaled $29.2 million, down 12%, according to an Amazon filing. Jassy's pay package has come under scrutiny since he became CEO in 2021, due to an unusual stock award that he received at the time, vesting over 10 years. We dug into Amazon’s annual proxy statement this morning to understand the latest details, including how his compensation compares to rank-and-file employees. Read more.

• Jassy’s annual letter to shareholders highlights the potential of businesses such as Prime Video and the Project Kuiper satellite broadband initiative. Read more.

• Appearing on CNBC, Jassy tells the “sad story” of Amazon’s failed iRobot deal, and says regulators are acting “outside the bounds of the law right now.” Watch here.

• Amazon’s newest board member is Andrew Ng, a business and tech leader who specializes in artificial intelligence and online education. Read more.

Another big Seattle biotech deal: Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to buy Seattle’s Alpine Immune Sciences in a $4.9 billion acquisition — the largest biotech merger this year. It’s the latest in a string of giant deals for the Seattle biotech ecosystem. Read more.

AI in the classroom: Seattle Public Schools is piloting software from a new startup called MagicSchool AI that is designed to enhance learning for students and help teachers quickly generate lesson plans, among other features. It’s the latest example of AI making its way into schools. Read more. 

Tech Moves: 

• Munil Shah, a former engineering leader at UiPath, joined customer service software company Talkdesk as chief technology officer. 

• Ajay Nair, a longtime engineering leader at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, joined search technology giant Elastic as a group vice president.

• Read more about key personnel changes across Pacific Northwest tech. 

Washington state car buyers are increasingly going electric. New data shows that 19% of new cars registered in the state last year were electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids — up from 13% in 2022, and almost double the U.S. average. However, overall growth is slowing in the EV markets for the U.S. and globally. Read more.

Hot Links:

• A preview of Microsoft’s new Xbox Cloud Gaming interface brings to the web many of the social features that gamers would normally find in the Xbox console dashboard. (The Verge)

• Microsoft pitched the U.S. Department of Defense on using OpenAI’s technology for tasks including training battle management systems last year, raising questions about military applications of artificial intelligence. (The Intercept)

• Docusign announced a new foray into a broader category that it calls “Intelligent Agreement Management.” The San Francisco-based company has roots in Seattle and a large engineering presence here. (Docusign Blog)

Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter, and have a great day. — GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com, and GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.