According to a recent blog post by CEO and co-founder Brendan Falk, Amazon has acquired the technology of Fig, with the company's employees, including two co-founders, joining Amazon's cloud subsidiary AWS. The specific terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Founded in San Francisco in 2020, Fig had raised just over $2 million in funding. While the exact amount is unknown, it is unlikely that Amazon paid a significant sum for the startup. Notably, Fig had secured support from prominent backers such as YC, General Catalyst, Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel, Eventbrite founder Kevin Hartz, and ex-GitHub CTO Jason Warner.
The acquisition of Fig by Amazon is driven by a desire to enhance the developer experience and leverage their respective expertise. Specifically, Amazon is interested in exploring the potential of the emerging generative AI revolution. Fig offers valuable assistance to developers by providing helpful suggestions, similar to GitHub's Copilot and other similar tools introduced by Google and Meta.
While Fig may not yet have achieved the same level of scale as Copilot, AWS has demonstrated its ambitions in the generative AI space. In fact, AWS launched its own AI pair-programmer called CodeWhisperer earlier this year. By acquiring Fig and bringing their talented team on board, Amazon can further strengthen its position in the cloud market and keep up with its competitors.
Falk expressed AWS's belief that generative AI signifies a significant technological change that will revolutionize how customers construct their projects. AWS is thrilled to be part of this broader vision. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Fig claimed to have garnered thousands of users from renowned organizations like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon itself. This suggests that Amazon's engineers may have brought Fig to the attention of higher-ups, potentially prompting its mergers and acquisitions unit into action ahead of its competitors.
Moving forward, Fig confirmed that existing users will still be able to utilize Fig and receive support. However, new signups are temporarily suspended as Amazon focuses on addressing integration needs with AWS. The long-term implications for developers and engineers working with other cloud providers remain uncertain.
In his blog post, Falk stated that there are no updates to share regarding future plans. However, the team at Amazon remains dedicated to advancing innovation for developers, particularly in the terminal/shell area.
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