Amazon may soon acquire autonomous car startup Zoox

Amazon may soon start making last-mile deliveries using autonomous vehicles if it acquires Zoox. Bloomberg recently reported that Amazon is in talks to purchase self-driving technology startup Zoox for close to $3.2 billion.

“Following on from Amazon’s commitment to buy 100,000 Rivian delivery vans between 2021-24, a potential Zoox transaction could make those custom vans autonomous as well. Together with Amazon’s foray into autonomous line-haul trucking (Amazon's Self Driving Trucks and Autonomous Delivery Bots, Embark Releases AV Data, Boeing's Heavy Delivery Drone, CES Updates and more…) this could give Amazon autonomous middle-mile and last-mile capability,” wrote Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas.

Importantly, Jonas notes that UPS and FedEx would have to respond to keep up with the cost and ESG benefits of an autonomous delivery platform from Amazon. That means more capex spending for both.