diff --git a/hack/update-template-amazonlinux.sh b/hack/update-template-amazonlinux.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..6f91ca1a21b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/update-template-amazonlinux.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright The Lima Authors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+set -eu -o pipefail
+
+# Functions in this script assume error handling with 'set -e'.
+# To ensure 'set -e' works correctly:
+# - Use 'set +e' before assignments and '$(set -e; <function>)' to capture output without exiting on errors.
+# - Avoid calling functions directly in conditions to prevent disabling 'set -e'.
+# - Use 'shopt -s inherit_errexit' (Bash 4.4+) to avoid repeated 'set -e' in all '$(...)'.
+shopt -s inherit_errexit || error_exit "inherit_errexit not supported. Please use bash 4.4 or later."
+
+function amazonlinux_print_help() {
+	cat <<HELP
+$(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}"): Update the Amazon Linux 2023 image location in the specified templates
+
+Usage:
+  $(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}") <template.yaml>...
+
+Description:
+  This script updates the Amazon Linux 2023 image location in the specified templates.
+  Image location format:
+    https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/<version>/<folder>/<filename>
+
+  Latest version information is fetched from:
+    https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/latest/
+
+Examples:
+  Update the Amazon Linux 2023 image location in templates/**.yaml:
+  $ $(basename "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}") templates/**.yaml
+
+Flags:
+  -h, --help          Print this help message
+HELP
+}
+
+function amazonlinux_cache_key_for_image_kernel() {
+	local location=$1
+	case "${location}" in
+	https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/*) ;;
+	*) return 1 ;;
+	esac
+	# Cache key based on architecture and variant derived from location
+	# We use a simple heuristic: file path components.
+	# The URL structure is .../os-images/<version>/<folder>/...
+	# We want a key that represents "amazonlinux:al2023:<folder>"
+	local folder
+	if [[ ${location} == *"/kvm-arm64/"* ]]; then
+		folder="kvm-arm64"
+	elif [[ ${location} == *"/kvm/"* ]]; then
+		folder="kvm"
+	else
+		return 1
+	fi
+	echo "amazonlinux:al2023:${folder}"
+}
+
+function amazonlinux_image_entry_for_image_kernel() {
+	local location=$1
+	case "${location}" in
+	https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/*) ;;
+	*) return 1 ;;
+	esac
+
+	local latest_url
+	# Get the redirect URL to find the latest version
+	latest_url=$(curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w '%{url_effective}' https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/latest/)
+	local version
+	version=$(basename "${latest_url}")
+
+	local arch folder
+	if [[ ${location} == *"x86_64"* ]]; then
+		# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+		arch="x86_64"
+		folder="kvm"
+	elif [[ ${location} == *"arm64"* ]] || [[ ${location} == *"aarch64"* ]]; then
+		# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+		arch="aarch64"
+		folder="kvm-arm64"
+	else
+		error_exit "Unknown arch for amazonlinux location: ${location}"
+	fi
+
+	local base_url="https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/${version}/${folder}"
+	local checksums
+	checksums=$(download_to_cache "${base_url}/SHA256SUMS")
+
+	local filename digest line
+	# Find the qcow2 file in SHA256SUMS
+	line=$(grep "\.qcow2$" "${checksums}" | head -n 1)
+	[[ -n ${line} ]] || error_exit "No qcow2 image found in ${base_url}/SHA256SUMS"
+
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+	digest=$(echo "${line}" | awk '{print "sha256:"$1}')
+	filename=$(echo "${line}" | awk '{print $2}')
+
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2034
+	local location="${base_url}/${filename}"
+
+	json_vars location arch digest
+}
+
+# check if the script is executed or sourced
+# shellcheck disable=SC1091
+if [[ ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} == "${0}" ]]; then
+	scriptdir=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
+	# shellcheck source=./cache-common-inc.sh
+	. "${scriptdir}/cache-common-inc.sh"
+
+	# shellcheck source=/dev/null # avoid shellcheck hangs on source looping
+	. "${scriptdir}/update-template.sh"
+else
+	# this script is sourced
+	if [[ -v SUPPORTED_DISTRIBUTIONS ]]; then
+		SUPPORTED_DISTRIBUTIONS+=("amazonlinux")
+	else
+		declare -a SUPPORTED_DISTRIBUTIONS=("amazonlinux")
+	fi
+	return 0
+fi
+
+declare -a templates=()
+while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
+	case "$1" in
+	-h | --help)
+		amazonlinux_print_help
+		exit 0
+		;;
+	-d | --debug) set -x ;;
+	*.yaml) templates+=("$1") ;;
+	*)
+		error_exit "Unknown argument: $1"
+		;;
+	esac
+	shift
+done
+
+if [[ ${#templates[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
+	amazonlinux_print_help
+	exit 0
+fi
+
+declare -A image_entry_cache=()
+
+for template in "${templates[@]}"; do
+	echo "Processing ${template}"
+	# 1. extract location by parsing template
+	yq_filter="
+		.images[] | [.location, .kernel.location, .kernel.cmdline] | @tsv
+	"
+	parsed=$(yq eval "${yq_filter}" "${template}")
+
+	# 2. get the image location
+	arr=()
+	while IFS= read -r line; do arr+=("${line}"); done <<<"${parsed}"
+	locations=("${arr[@]}")
+	for ((index = 0; index < ${#locations[@]}; index++)); do
+		[[ ${locations[index]} != "null" ]] || continue
+		set -e
+		IFS=$'\t' read -r location _kernel_location _kernel_cmdline <<<"${locations[index]}"
+		set +e # Disable 'set -e' to avoid exiting on error for the next assignment.
+		cache_key=$(
+			set -e # Enable 'set -e' for the next command.
+			amazonlinux_cache_key_for_image_kernel "${location}"
+		) # Check exit status separately to prevent disabling 'set -e' by using the function call in the condition.
+		# shellcheck disable=2181
+		[[ $? -eq 0 ]] || continue
+		image_entry=$(
+			set -e # Enable 'set -e' for the next command.
+			if [[ -v image_entry_cache[${cache_key}] ]]; then
+				echo "${image_entry_cache[${cache_key}]}"
+			else
+				amazonlinux_image_entry_for_image_kernel "${location}"
+			fi
+		) # Check exit status separately to prevent disabling 'set -e' by using the function call in the condition.
+		# shellcheck disable=2181
+		[[ $? -eq 0 ]] || continue
+		set -e
+		image_entry_cache[${cache_key}]="${image_entry}"
+		if [[ -n ${image_entry} ]]; then
+			echo "${image_entry}" | jq
+			limactl edit --log-level error --set "
+				.images[${index}] = ${image_entry}|
+				(.images[${index}] | ..) style = \"double\"
+			" "${template}"
+		fi
+	done
+done
diff --git a/hack/update-template.sh b/hack/update-template.sh
index df38ee92300..106b61bfad6 100755
--- a/hack/update-template.sh
+++ b/hack/update-template.sh
@@ -174,6 +174,8 @@ if [[ ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} == "${0}" ]]; then
 	. "${scriptdir}/update-template-freebsd.sh"
 	# shellcheck source=./update-template-macos.sh
 	. "${scriptdir}/update-template-macos.sh"
+	# shellcheck source=./update-template-amazonlinux.sh
+	. "${scriptdir}/update-template-amazonlinux.sh"
 else
 	# this script is sourced
 	return 0
diff --git a/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.Linux/04-amazonlinux-virtiofs.sh b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.Linux/04-amazonlinux-virtiofs.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f4900d73999
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/cidata/cidata.TEMPLATE.d/boot.Linux/04-amazonlinux-virtiofs.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright The Lima Authors
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+set -eux -o pipefail
+
+# Workaround for Amazon Linux 2023
+if [ -f /etc/os-release ] && grep -q "Amazon Linux" /etc/os-release; then
+	# 1. Create missing mount.virtiofs helper
+	if [ ! -e /sbin/mount.virtiofs ]; then
+		cat >/sbin/mount.virtiofs <<'EOF'
+#!/bin/sh
+exec mount -i -t virtiofs "$@"
+EOF
+		chmod +x /sbin/mount.virtiofs
+	fi
+
+	# Amazon Linux 2023 requires a workaround for virtiofs mounts.
+	# The mount.virtiofs helper script is missing, and cloud-init
+	# may fail to mount the filesystems. This creates the helper
+	# and manually mounts them.
+	USER_DATA="/var/lib/cloud/instance/user-data.txt"
+	if [ -f "${USER_DATA}" ]; then
+		# Parse all mount entries from user-data (mount0, mount1, ...)
+		MOUNT_ENTRIES=$(grep -E '^\s*-\s+\[mount[0-9]+,' "${USER_DATA}" || true)
+		if [ -n "${MOUNT_ENTRIES}" ]; then
+			echo "${MOUNT_ENTRIES}" | while IFS= read -r entry; do
+				MOUNT_TAG=$(echo "${entry}" | grep -oP 'mount\K[0-9]+')
+				MOUNT_POINT=$(echo "${entry}" | awk -F, '{print $2}' | tr -d '[:space:]')
+				if [ -n "${MOUNT_TAG}" ] && [ -n "${MOUNT_POINT}" ] && ! mountpoint -q "${MOUNT_POINT}"; then
+					mkdir -p "${MOUNT_POINT}"
+					mount -t virtiofs "mount${MOUNT_TAG}" "${MOUNT_POINT}" || true
+				fi
+			done
+		fi
+	fi
+fi
diff --git a/templates/README.md b/templates/README.md
index 8d198b898e1..aaa2ddc4e5c 100644
--- a/templates/README.md
+++ b/templates/README.md
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ lima
 - [`almalinux-kitten-10`](./almalinux-kitten-10.yaml), `almalinux-kitten`: AlmaLinux Kitten 10
 - [`alpine`](./alpine.yaml): ☆Alpine Linux
 - [`alpine-iso`](./alpine-iso.yaml): ☆Alpine Linux (ISO9660 image). Compatible with the `alpine` template used in Lima prior to v1.0.
+- [`amazonlinux-2023`](./amazonlinux-2023.yaml): Amazon Linux 2023
 - [`archlinux`](./archlinux.yaml): ☆Arch Linux
 - [`centos-stream-9`](./centos-stream-9.yaml), `centos-stream`: CentOS Stream 9
 - [`centos-stream-10`](./centos-stream-10.yaml): CentOS Stream 10
diff --git a/templates/_images/amazonlinux-2023.yaml b/templates/_images/amazonlinux-2023.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cf51b5061f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/_images/amazonlinux-2023.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# More information: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/linux/al2023/ug/outside-ec2-download.html
+
+images:
+- location: "https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/2023.11.20260406.2/kvm/al2023-kvm-2023.11.20260406.2-kernel-6.1-x86_64.xfs.gpt.qcow2"
+  arch: "x86_64"
+  digest: "sha256:72e10d974e832d9b56b84e71fe6f2e22589c9c539cc38e6d00cd84177839e2e8"
+- location: "https://cdn.amazonlinux.com/al2023/os-images/2023.11.20260406.2/kvm-arm64/al2023-kvm-2023.11.20260406.2-kernel-6.1-arm64.xfs.gpt.qcow2"
+  arch: "aarch64"
+  digest: "sha256:c012f9ecb88f377c49e4338c2c6f5702ca885a37e96118119ce67266d0a7524d"
diff --git a/templates/amazonlinux-2023.yaml b/templates/amazonlinux-2023.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f93d6f91b2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/amazonlinux-2023.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+minimumLimaVersion: 2.1.2
+
+base:
+- template:_images/amazonlinux-2023
+- template:_default/mounts
diff --git a/templates/amazonlinux.yaml b/templates/amazonlinux.yaml
new file mode 120000
index 00000000000..bfa2d7b735d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/amazonlinux.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+amazonlinux-2023.yaml
\ No newline at end of file