Ternus Takes Apple, Anthropic Commits $100B to AWS, and Home Depot Buys a Robot Startup

On this weekend edition of The Watson Weekly, Rick Watson and Jessica Lesesky break down the biggest stories shaping tech, retail, and AI.Amazon is doubling down on its Anthropic bet — with a new deal that has Anthropic committing $100B to AWS over the next decade, while Amazon pumps in an additional $5B(with up to $20B more on the table) and locks in guaranteed compute capacity. With over 100K customers already using Claude on Bedrock and Amazon holding a reported 15% stake, this partnership is reshaping the cloud AI landscape.Home Depot quietly acquired SIMPL Automation, a scrappy robotics startup that had raised just $100K before piloting its warehouse density technology at Home Depot's Locust Grove DC. Rick and Jessica unpack what this signals about the arms race between Home Depot and Lowe's to modernize supply chain and distribution.The Watson Weekly Weekend edition is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.comPlus, the end of an era at Apple: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO after 15 years to become executive chairman, handing the reins to 25-year Apple veteran John Ternus. Cook leaves behind a company transformed — from a $350B market cap to $4T, and a services business that now tops $100B. What does a hardware-focused CEO mean for Apple's AI strategy and search partnerships?