Amazon hopes to launch its AI programming tool Kiro by giving it to startups

Is there any way for another AI-powered coding tool to reach the hearts of startup founders – Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini Code Assist, GitHub CoPilot, the many AI-wrapped VSCode forks, and vitality coding phenomena like Replit and Lovable?

Amazon wants to try the tried-and-true method of giving away its tool for free.

The cloud giant says it will give qualifying early-stage startups a free year of credits To compete with Kiro Pro+These startups can request free credits for up to 100 users, AWS CEO Matt Jarman made the announcement during his keynote at the re:Invent 2025 conference.

But there are limitations. Only startups that have received venture capital funding ranging from seed funding to Series B funding are eligible. US startups are eligible, but the offer is not available in all countries. Geographical restrictions include France, Germany, Italy, much of South America and, of course, countries subject to trade sanctions. In addition, Applications Must be received by December 31st.

See the latest reveals on everything from agent AI and cloud infrastructure to security and more from Amazon Web Services’ flagship event in Las Vegas. This video is brought to you in partnership with AWS.