INDUSTRIAL conglomerate 3M said on Monday it was expanding its commercial relationship with Amazon and had issued a warrant to an Amazon subsidiary, allowing it the right to buy 3M common stock worth over $521 million.Shares of 3M were up more than 5 percent in extended trading after the announcement.3M said it has issued a warrant to a wholly owned Amazon subsidiary, giving it the right to purchase up to 3.16 million 3M shares over the next seven years at $164.89 per share.The agreement expands 3M’s commercial relationship with the e-commerce major at a time major technology companies are increasing spending on data-center infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-computing growth.3M said about 85 percent of the warrant shares will become available as Amazon buys optical connectivity and other data-center products from 3M, with that portion becoming fully vested once total purchases hit $6 billion.The remaining 15 percent of the shares will vest once certain milestone-based conditions are met.In July, Microsoft became the first hyperscaler to adopt 3M’s Expanded Beam Optics technology in AI data centers.
