Amazon is reengineering the last mile

Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy’s 2025 shareholder letter, which was published on 9 April 2026, frames this not merely as a logistics update, but as a "philosophy of invention" fuelled by a willingness to run multiple high-stakes bets simultaneously. This strategy begins on the fulfilment centre floor, where Jassy notes that Amazon now operates over one million robots following the 2012 acquisition of Kiva. These units are no longer just tools; they are the early chapters of a machine intelligence evolution designed to aggressively lower the cost per unit processed. This internal efficiency effectively subsidises the expensive last mile of the delivery process.

The most significant data point highlighted in Jassy's letter is a $4 billion commitment to a rural delivery network. While Jassy observes that competitors have historically retreated from low-density areas due to high cost-per-parcel metrics, Amazon is moving in to cover 13,000 zip codes across 1.2 million square miles. This infrastructure is being built to handle over one billion additional packages annually. According to the letter, this move is less about charity and more about territorial dominance. By being the first to build high-capacity infrastructure in rural America, Amazon creates a formidable barrier to entry. Jassy reports that the demand is already surfacing, as same-day customers in these rural zones nearly doubled in 2025 compared to the previous year.

In the race for speed, Jassy explains that Amazon is currently running three distinct urban strategies in parallel rather than waiting for a single winner to emerge. First is the network of Same Day Fulfilment Centres. These compact facilities stock the 90,000 most-ordered items and, as Jassy points out, have already moved 500 million units in early 2026 alone. Second is the Prime Air drone programme, which the letter states is targeting 30 million customers by the end of this year with a goal of 500 million 30-minute deliveries by 2030. Jassy confirms the design is now ready to scale globally. Third is Amazon Now, a micro-fulfilment service delivering in under 20 minutes. Already proven in India with over 360 locations and 25% month-on-month growth, Jassy shares that the service has shown that Prime members who use it triple their shopping frequency.

This frequency is further bolstered by a massive push into grocery, a segment Jassy describes as a key pillar for future growth. Amazon’s grocery business hit $150 billion in gross sales in 2025, making it the second-largest grocer in the United States. Since integrating perishables into the same-day network in early 2025, Jassy notes that sales for fresh items have grown 40 times over. Fresh food now accounts for nine of the top ten most-ordered same-day items in available regions. By folding weekly grocery habits into their existing logistics layer, Amazon has fundamentally altered the unit economics of the last mile. Instead of a customer ordering once a month, they now interact with the delivery network multiple times a week.

The third pillar is Amazon Now. Jassy notes that over the last year, starting in India and the UAE, Amazon has been working on Amazon Now, ultra-fast delivery on thousands of items within 20 minutes. Customers love this service. In India, where the company has more than 360 micro-fulfilment centres (and growing rapidly), Amazon Now orders are increasing 25% month-over-month, with Prime members tripling their shopping frequency once they start using it. Based on this success, Amazon is now starting to expand Amazon Now in the U.S. and Europe, too.

Jassy’s letter makes it clear that the goal is to make Amazon the default utility for physical goods. Whether it is a life-saving medication delivered to a rural doorstep or a fresh gallon of milk arriving in 20 minutes via an urban micro-hub, the infrastructure is being rebuilt to handle every type of package at any speed.

As Jassy writes in his closing, progress is rarely a straight line. However, with a logistics model being rebuilt from the ground up, the letter confirms that Amazon is no longer just participating in the delivery race; it is attempting to own the track.