Amazon has a dedicated team of research scientists, program managers, procurement specialists and software engineers working on COVID-19 testing system for its warehouse workers.
Amazon on Thursday disclosed that it expects to spend somewhere around $300 million this quarter developing its own COVID-19 testing system, in a move that could influence how other companies with large warehouse and factory operations try to resume business amid the pandemic.
All told, the $300 million investment is just a fraction of what the global pandemic will cost the e-commerce giant. With the release of its first quarter financial results on Thursday, Amazon said it expects just about all of its Q2 operating income — approximately $4 billion — to go toward costs related to COVID-19.
Amazon says it has assembled a team — comprising professionals like research scientists, program managers, procurement specialists and software engineers — that’s dedicated to building incremental testing capacity.
