AWS AI Updates: May 8, 2026

1. Bedrock AgentCore Payments enters preview

AWS. AgentCore Payments lets agents autonomously pay for APIs, MCP servers, web content, and other agents using Coinbase CDP or Stripe Privy wallets, with session-level spending limits and the x402 protocol for stablecoin settlement. Coinbase’s x402 Bazaar MCP server exposes 10,000+ paid endpoints for agent discovery. Preview is live in us-east-1, us-west-2, eu-central-1, and ap-southeast-2. Source

2. AgentCore Runtime adds BYO file system from S3 Files and EFS

AWS. AgentCore Runtime now mounts customer-provided S3 Files or EFS access points into every agent session at a configurable path, so agents read and write through standard file ops. The pattern targets shared skills, prompt templates, reference datasets, and project files persisted across sessions, with sub-millisecond latency on both backends. Available in all 15 AgentCore Runtime regions. Source

3. SageMaker Unified Studio adds identity and user management

AWS. SMUS adds admin controls for both IAM and Identity Center domains: IAM domains can wire IAM Identity Center SSO and add IAM roles, users, and groups as project members, while Identity Center domains let users federate via an IAM role with unique sessions even when sharing roles. The change targets mixed teams that need to collaborate across auth methods. Live in 15 regions. Source

4. HyperPod ships AMI-based node lifecycle for Slurm clusters

AWS. SageMaker HyperPod now supports AMI-based provisioning of Slurm cluster nodes, baking in Docker, Enroot, Pyxis, and Slurm accounting so production training environments boot without lifecycle script downloads. Extension scripts allow further customization, and the AMI is wired in via CreateCluster API or console, cutting cluster bring-up time. Available in all HyperPod regions. Source