Amazon to launch AI content marketplace for publishers

Amazon is reportedly planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can sell or license their content directly to companies building AI products, according to The Information.

People familiar with the matter told the publication that Amazon has been discussing the idea with publishing industry executives. The report says the company circulated internal slides that mention a “content marketplace,” citing two people who have spoken with Amazon about the project.

Those slides reportedly group the marketplace alongside AWS’s core AI products, including Bedrock and Quick Suite. The placement suggests Amazon may be positioning content licensing as a native part of the AI development process on AWS rather than as a separate, external step.

How the marketplace is expected to work

According to the report, the proposed marketplace would allow publishers to register their content and set licensing terms directly within the platform. Buyers would include AI developers, model builders, and generative AI services that need access to text, images, or other datasets.

AWS would serve as the intermediary. This could mean a developer using Bedrock or other AWS AI services could browse licensed datasets, purchase usage rights, and incorporate that content into training or inference workflows without leaving the AWS environment. This is a shift from today’s model, where publishers typically negotiate individual agreements with AI companies.

Why publishers and AI companies are looking for new structures

The reported plan comes at a time when publishers and tech companies are still trying to agree on how AI content should be used and compensated in the generative AI era. Many media companies have been pushing for usage-based fees that increase as AI systems rely more heavily on their work, an attempt to move beyond flat deals or one-off partnerships.

At the same time, legal pressure continues to build. Lawsuits over copyright and AI training practices are multiplying, including Penske Media’s lawsuit against Google and The New York Times’ dispute with OpenAI. A formalized licensing marketplace could address these longstanding challenges.

Amazon is not the first company to explore this type of model. Last week, Microsoft launched its own Publisher Content Marketplace, a platform designed to give AI systems scaled access to premium licensed content under terms defined by publishers.

Several AI companies have also signed direct licensing agreements with major publishers. OpenAI has struck deals with outlets such as Condé Nast and The Financial Times, granting rights to use their content for training and generating outputs. Perplexity also introduced a $42.5 million revenue-sharing program in August 2025 aimed at giving media outlets a share of ad revenue tied to their content. Meta also entered AI licensing deals with publishers in December.

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