Tech

Amazon is single-handedly disrupting the whole economy, says investor Roger McNamee

Key Points
  • Elevation Partners' McNamee said Amazon's apparent deal with Cerner is promising, but retail will still bring more value short-term.
  • Amazon's strength in cloud services means the company disrupts any industry reticent to take on the cloud.
As Amazon expands its empire, tech investor Roger McNamee reveals what we can expect next
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As Amazon expands its empire, tech investor Roger McNamee reveals what we can expect next

Amazon is not just disrupting industries, it is single-handedly disrupting the whole economy, according to Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee.

The investor, in his appearance on CNBC's "Fast Money" on Wednesday, was commenting on the apparent deal between Amazon's cloud business and Cerner, one of the world's biggest health tech companies. Amazon has been looking for a way into the health-care industry.

McNamee said he sees this move as a "typical Amazon" approach to the type of disruption it is causing in virtually every industry.

"Any industry that has been reluctant to adopt cloud services has been at risk for being disrupted by amazon," McNamee said. "Health care is one of the places where the cloud has had much less impact than it could have or should have."

Much of Amazon's success, McNamee argued, comes from the company's robust and expanding cloud services. In addition to its health investments, Amazon Web Services looks to expand into the public sector, announcing plans for a group of cloud data centers for the U.S. intelligence community Monday.

"The reality is that Amazon is the world's most successful player in cloud services. And any industry that has been reluctant to adopt cloud services has been at risk for being disrupted by amazon," he said.

Health care may not be a huge money-maker straight away, but if Amazon's success in other industries is any indicator, McNamee anticipates AWS' partnership with Cerner will be a good start.

"In each market in which they operate, [Amazon has] changed the rules profoundly. It makes it really hard for competitors to fight back, they are effectively playing a different game," he said.

While health care looks like the next big target on Amazon's cloud disruption list, McNamee thinks streamlining retail and perishable food distribution will bring the company its biggest value over the short term, especially as traditional retailers struggle.

"There are just too many square feet of retail space and it is allocated in a way that inevitably is going to have lots of losers," McNamee said.