Instacart (Maplebear) vs Amazon.com

Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon engineer, recognized that grocery shopping was one of the last major consumer experiences that hadn't been "digitized." He built Instacart, a platform that used gig-economy workers to shop and deliver groceries from local stores. It solved the massive logistics hurdle of "item variability"—the fact that shoppers need to check for the freshest avocados and the right cereal, something an algorithm couldn't easily do from a central warehouse.

Instead of competing with grocery stores, Instacart made them its partners. By building a software layer that integrated directly into retailer inventory systems, Instacart allowed stores to offer a high-quality delivery experience without having to build their own logistics infrastructure. This "win-win" model allowed the company to scale rapidly, as it didn't have to deal with the high capital costs of owning grocery inventory.

The global pandemic made Instacart the most vital digital service in the country for millions of families. The company saw an unprecedented, massive surge in demand that forced it to rapidly scale its fleet of gig shoppers. This period transformed the company from a "convenience service" into an essential piece of American retail infrastructure, while simultaneously highlighting the extreme complexities of managing a gig-worker-led delivery force.

After its public listing, Instacart revealed that its most profitable business was not the delivery fees, but the "advertising engine" it built for CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies. Brands paid Instacart for preferred placement on its search results, allowing the company to monetize the massive amount of consumer data it collected. This turned Instacart into a high-margin advertising giant, which fundamentally changed its business model.

By mid-2026, Instacart operates as the primary digital-enablement layer for the US grocery industry. It does not just deliver food; it provides the inventory management, advertising, and analytics infrastructure for thousands of retailers. By focusing on its high-margin advertising engine and technical partnerships, Instacart has solidified its role as a indispensable pillar of modern grocery retail.

Jeff Bezos quit his well-paying job at hedge fund D.E. Shaw in 1994 to sell books online. His boss thought he was crazy. Bezos drove from New York to Seattle while his wife drove — he typed the business plan on a laptop in the passenger seat. He made the decision using a "regret minimisation framework": at 80, he knew he'd regret not trying far more than failing.

Amazon went public in May 1997 at $18 per share. Barron's ran a cover story calling it "Amazon.bomb," arguing the company could never generate enough profit. Amazon lost money for nine consecutive years. Bezos kept investing in fulfilment, technology, and selection. The analysts were right about the losses — and completely wrong about everything else.

Amazon Web Services launched in 2006 as an internal tool to help Amazon's own engineers deploy infrastructure faster. The company realised other businesses needed the same thing and opened it to the public. AWS is now responsible for the majority of Amazon's profit, despite being a fraction of its revenue. It is the most profitable cloud business in history.

Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO on July 5, 2021 — exactly 27 years after founding the company — handing over to Andy Jassy, who had built AWS from scratch. Bezos announced plans to fly to space on Blue Origin the same day. His net worth at the time was approximately $200 billion.

Amazon invested up to $4 billion in Anthropic in 2023, securing preferred cloud provider status and deploying Claude across AWS Bedrock. By April 2026, over 100,000 businesses were running Claude on Amazon Bedrock. AWS was growing at 17% annually in 2025, crossing $100 billion in annualised revenue. The company that had started by selling books online had become the infrastructure provider for the AI revolution — and was charging every major AI company for the compute to run it.