Key takeaways
- Amazon will support AI skills training for 4 million U.S. learners and enable AI curricula for 10,000 educators by 2028.
- Amazon is providing $30 million in AWS promotional credits to help organizations create educational solutions.
- Amazon will contribute up to $200,000 in AWS credits and $1.5 million in cash prizes to support the Presidential AI Challenge.
Today, Amazon joined education, technology, and government leaders from across the country at a White House event in support of the White House’s Pledge to America’s Youth. Here are some of the ways Amazon plans to contribute and the tools we’ll use:
By 2028, Amazon will support AI skills training for 4 million U.S. learners, enable AI curricula for 10,000 U.S. educators, and provide up to $30 million in credits for eligible organizations to use cloud and AI technology to support students and educators in the U.S. In addition, Amazon will support the Presidential AI Challenge.
We’ll achieve these goals both via our direct offerings and our partnership with a range of organizations that work with students of all ages.
Our digital learning centers, run by Amazon’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), offer more than 135 free and low-cost AI and machine learning (ML) courses and resources via AWS Educate and AWS Skill Builder. Amazon’s Machine Learning University was originally designed to train Amazon employees in AI and ML, and is now available externally, providing a professional development program for educators in higher education. It helps integrate open-sourced content into curricula and research using AWS services such as Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock.
Through the AWS Academy, educators have access to new generative AI curriculum, empowering them to quickly teach students the latest concepts in this emerging technology. The AWS Academy provides higher education institutions with free, ready-to-teach cloud computing and AI curriculum that prepares students to pursue industry-recognized AWS Certifications and sought-after technology jobs.
A $30 million commitment of AWS promotional credits will support organizations in the U.S. that are creating or scaling digital solutions. This investment is part of an AWS global initiative to help eligible organizations build AI-powered innovations, such as chatbots, teaching assistants, and lesson plan generators to improve educational access.
Amazon Future Engineer (AFE), our global philanthropic education initiative, aims to increase student access to computer science education and AI. Through project-based learning modules, we've supported more than 2.1 million students receiving over 17 million hours of computer science education, including introductory skill building and interdisciplinary exploration of AI. AFE Career Tours bring role models directly to classrooms, helping students explore computer science and AI applications through real-world experiences.
In support of the Presidential AI Challenge, Amazon will offer up to $200,000 total in AWS credits to challenge-winning school districts, $1.5 million in cash prizes to challenge-winning students, and technical guidance for educators who are supporting student teams with their AI solutions. We will also enable educator access to PartyRock, an Amazon Bedrock Playground to build AI-generated apps.
Amazon is also collaborating with PlayLabAI to establish a $500,000 fund to sponsor selected school districts for the 2025-2026 academic year. This will help school districts with professional development for educators on AI fundamentals, classroom-ready AI tools, and curriculum resources.
These initiatives build on our longstanding work to help people develop the skills they need to grow their careers in technology. Amazon has provided free cloud computing training to more than 31 million learners and is bridging the gap between education and employment by collaborating with educational institutions and employers through AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance. We’ve also upskilled over 358,000 U.S. employees through education and training programs since 2019. Additionally, Amazon has several workforce development programs and apprenticeships to develop talent who build, connect, power, operate, and maintain data centers.
