I think Amazon (not Bezos) is relatively conservative in the space of "trying new things", but I'd argue when they have done it, they have a higher success rate than the other mega caps (excluding Apple I'd say). Somehow though, big tech can't seem to spend most of their cash doing it (insert that Thiel quote here).

Bezos has had aspirations in space for decades, this is nothing new. According to one version of the story which I know was being told to new Amazon employees at one point, Bezos founded Amazon to make money so that he could do space stuff. Not sure I believe it, but that narrative was being tossed around about 15 years ago.

Mega constellations are a new focus, obviously inspired by Starlink, but it's entirely rational given the context of Bezos already owning a rocket company. Operating a fleet of communication satellites has been proven as a working strategy for paying for a lot of rocket launches. At this point, any rocket company that doesn't have similar plans in the works is asking to be out of business.

What is Amazons core business these days? Is it the "everything store" or is it AWS? Because I think it's AWS and then being able to provide internet connectivity aligns sort of okay with pushing for more traffic to AWS.

Do get the sentiment when looking at where Amazon's performance is going, but maybe mistargeted. There's definitely always something grey about what chairmen do, but given he doesn't run Amazon anymore (nothing grey when comparing to Zuckerberg/Meta) he can be free to work on things he wants to right?

The difference is AWS is the backbone of the modern Internet and Amazon is a dominant force in retail, which gives him a cash-printing machine.

Zuck has one website that's been a has-been enshittified hellscape for going on almost 10 years now, another he very well might be forced to sell, and a pivot to a "metaverse" that's nothing but one big bonfire of cash. Meta may be R&Ding the shit out of VR/AR, but there's no guarantee they're going to be able to cash in.

In this case I think they want to own their backbone - much like owning fibre.