Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ AM-ə-zon UK also /ˈæməzən/ AM-ə-zən) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been often referred to as 'one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world', and is often regarded as one of the world's most valuable brands. It is considered as one of the Big Five American technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Apple, Meta (formerly Facebook Inc.) and Microsoft. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. Initially an online marketplace for books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories, a strategy that has earned it the moniker The Everything Store. It has multiple subsidiaries including Amazon Web Services (cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet), and Amazon Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). Its other subsidiaries include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in August 2017 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)