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To avoid future problems, the California Air Resources Board and its partner Pedal Ahead hired Akamai Technologies, a cybersecurity and cloud computing company, and Queue-it, a company that manages website traffic congestion, to manage and host the virtual waiting room.

Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service is one of the largest providers of data centres in the world, and powers a large part of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

He pointed out that Amazon - originally a consumer internet company - had scaled cloud computing while the big players in AI today, like Facebook and Google, were once consumer internet companies too.

Ultimately AWS, which provides cloud computing services, would like to offer quantum computing services to its customers, but Mr Painter also said he believed the advanced machines could eventually help optimise the vast global logistics of Amazon's retail business.

And because these firms dominate cloud computing, data access and AI research, it makes it difficult for smaller businesses and individuals to compete.