Amazon has entered a new partnership with JPMorgan-backed fintech startup Slope to provide rapid financing to small and medium-sized businesses selling on its platform, addressing a critical need for post-holiday inventory funding.

The program offers pre-screened loans of up to $5 million, with capital often available the next day, to help merchants replenish stock. This move reinforces Amazon’s strategic interest in ensuring its vast network of third-party sellers remains financially healthy, especially during peak sales cycles.

Key Details of the Amazon-Slope Partnership

Addressing a Post-Holiday Capital Crunch

The partnership arrives at a crucial time for online sellers. According to Alice Deng, co-founder of Slope, tariff-related uncertainties earlier in the year made many small businesses cautious about ordering large holiday inventories. However, stronger-than-expected consumer spending—with U.S. online sales projected to grow 5.3% this season—has created an urgent need for quick capital to restock best-selling items before Christmas.

“Loan demand is pushing deeper into the season than previous years,” Deng noted, as sellers scramble to capitalize on remaining holiday sales.

How the Loan Program Works for Sellers

The process is designed for speed and convenience. Amazon shares sales data with Slope, enabling the fintech firm to identify and pre-screen qualified sellers. One such seller is Zisha Katz, a New Jersey-based merchant of electronics, who recently took a $100,000 loan.

“I ran out of stock of certain items and I had to pay vendors to get more,” Katz said. He found Slope’s terms—a 2.65% fee for 60 days—appealing compared to using high-interest credit cards, and far faster than securing a traditional bank loan. “If you’re about to pay a vendor with a credit card, this is a much better option.”

Strategic Shift for Amazon’s Seller Ecosystem

This partnership marks a shift in Amazon’s approach to seller financing. The company previously operated its own direct lending program but discontinued it last year in favor of partnerships with established and startup lenders. Given that independent merchants sell approximately 60% of the products on Amazon, their success is directly tied to the platform’s overall health and inventory diversity.

Slope, which debuted in 2021 and raised a $65 million funding round led by JPMorgan last year, had been beta-testing loans with Amazon sellers in recent weeks. The formal, broader rollout now provides a structured solution for a perennial small-business challenge: accessing flexible, short-term working capital.

DoorDash is testing a new, standalone social app called Zesty that uses artificial intelligence to help users find restaurant recommendations, marking a significant expansion beyond its core food-delivery business.

Currently in public testing in San Francisco and New York, Zesty leverages an AI chatbot to provide personalized dining suggestions based on social media buzz and reviews from platforms like TikTok, Google Maps, and Reddit.

How Zesty Works: AI Meets Social Discovery

Zesty functions as a dedicated discovery platform, separate from the main DoorDash delivery app. Users log in with their DoorDash account and are greeted with a simple interface: a feed of nearby restaurants and a text box for querying an AI assistant.

• AI-Powered Recommendations: Users can ask the chatbot for specific suggestions (e.g., “good date night spots” or “the best tacos in Brooklyn”). The AI provides answers with citations pulling data from third-party sources, including Google Maps ratings, TikTok video likes, and Reddit discussions.
• Social Features: The app incorporates social networking elements. Users can share photos and reviews of restaurants they’ve visited, browse posts from others, and follow profiles to curate their feed, blending discovery with community interaction.
• No Direct Ordering (Yet): In its current test version, Zesty is purely for discovery. The AI cannot place orders or directly transfer users to the DoorDash app for delivery. DoorDash explicitly states that its recommendations “do not imply any sponsorship, endorsement or partnership” with the listed restaurants.

Strategic Expansion Beyond Delivery

The launch of Zesty aligns with DoorDash’s strategy to diversify its services and become a more comprehensive “local logistics” platform.

Recent initiatives include:

• The expansion of a dine-in reservation feature following its acquisition of restaurant tech company SevenRooms.
• Testing of autonomous delivery robots in suburban areas.
• A planned increase in investment, with the company telling investors it expects to spend “several hundred million dollars more” in 2026 on new initiatives.

Zesty vs. Traditional DoorDash: A Comparison

A DoorDash spokesperson stated the company is “always looking for new ways to help people connect with the best of their communities.” The company has not disclosed which AI models power Zesty’s chatbot.

By venturing into AI-driven social discovery, DoorDash is directly competing in the crowded restaurant review and recommendation space, challenging established players by leveraging its vast data on local restaurants and integrating real-time social proof.

Microsoft has reached a new milestone in its decades-long evolution—surpassing a $4 trillion market valuation and becoming only the second publicly traded company to do so, following Nvidia’s recent ascent. The achievement, marked by a sharp rally in its stock price on Thursday, reflects investor confidence in the company’s aggressive push into artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.

The technology giant’s shares rose by 6.6% to $546.33 in morning trading after it posted robust earnings and projected a record $30 billion in capital spending for the current fiscal quarter. That figure, the highest quarterly investment in the company’s history, is aimed at scaling its AI capabilities and expanding its Azure cloud services to meet soaring global demand.

“Microsoft is steadily repositioning itself as a leader in enterprise AI and cloud infrastructure,” said Gerrit Smit, portfolio manager at Stonehage Fleming. “What’s notable is that it’s managing this transition with strong profitability, even as capital expenditures rise sharply.”

Microsoft, which first crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2019, has seen more measured growth compared to tech peers like Nvidia and Apple. But the surge in AI development—particularly since the debut of ChatGPT, powered by Microsoft-backed OpenAI—has significantly accelerated the company’s momentum. Microsoft’s integration of generative AI into its Office Suite and Azure platform has been a major catalyst for its stock’s rise.

The broader tech sector is also showing similar optimism. Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon have all increased their capital spending forecasts, highlighting an intensifying race among Silicon Valley firms to dominate the AI landscape. Meta alone raised its annual capital guidance by $2 billion, signaling strong confidence in AI’s role in driving future revenues.

Despite concerns that ongoing U.S. tariffs might impact corporate investment, Microsoft’s earnings suggest that its growth strategy remains unshaken. With record revenues and a clear focus on AI infrastructure, the company appears well-positioned to maintain its leadership in the next era of enterprise technology.