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Amazon profit surges as AWS sales rise 37%
Prime delivery speeds set record for e-commerce, technology and logistics company
Attendees at a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services at in Las Vegas. (Noah Berger/Getty Images)
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $62.65 billion as net sales rose 20% to $200.6 billion.
- AWS sales increased 37%, their fastest growth in 18 quarters, while Amazon’s AI and chips businesses each surpassed $25 billion run rates.
- Amazon issued a cautious current-quarter sales outlook as investors weighed its planned $200 billion investment in AI, robotics, semiconductors and satellites.
NEW YORK — Amazon.com Inc. delivered strong profit and net sales during its fiscal second quarter, helped by surging growth in its prominent cloud computing unit.
The e-commerce and technology company said July 30 that sales in its cloud computing unit called AWS rose 37% during the April-June period, faster than the 28% clip in the previous quarter and marking the fastest rate of growth in 18 quarters.
But the Seattle-based company offered a cautious sales outlook for the current quarter. Still, shares rose more than 7% in after-hours trading.
In a statement, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS is “booming” and noted that its AI and chips businesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion. He noted that in stores, the company set record delivery speeds for its Prime members in the first half of the year, noting that 40% more items were delivered either same-day or overnight.
“There’s a lot to be excited about, and we have much more coming for customers in the second half of the year and beyond,” he said.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America, No. 15 on the TT Top 100 list of the largest private carriers and No. 1 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight companies.
Investors were closely watching to see if the company’s $200 billion investment in artificial intelligence, robots, semiconductors and satellites is starting to pay off. The planned expenditure for the year marked a 60% increase from Amazon’s $128 billion in capital spending last year and raised concerns among investors.
Amazon was among the last of the tech giants to report its earnings results covering the latest three-month period. The reports offer investors a read on AI spending and cloud computing growth across the industry.
Google parent Alphabet reported better-than-expected revenue for the second quarter last week, fueled by an 82% increase in its cloud business. But the stock tumbled as the tech giant increased its full-year forecast for capital expenditures to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion. That's up from its previous estimate of $180 billion to $190 billion.
Microsoft, which on July 29 reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, said growth was strong for its Azure cloud business. The company didn’t announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments. That helped to boost shares. Investors are worried that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not ultimately be worth it if AI doesn't deliver as much productivity and profits as promised.
Amazon’s results from the latest quarter underscored that demand keeps growing for Amazon’s services and technology.
In April, Amazon signed big deals with OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.
Amazon announced in April what it called a “major expansion” of its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI one day after the artificial intelligence company said it was loosening its ties to longtime backer Microsoft.
Like other retailers, however, Amazon is experiencing higher tariff costs because of President Donald Trump’s foreign trade policies. Rising shipping costs as the Iran war affects oil and fuel prices also could cut into the company’s e-commerce revenue.
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Meanwhile, Amazon has been speeding up order delivery times through a combination of robotics, AI technology and more efficient warehousing. In fact, speedier delivery helped Amazon dethrone Walmart in February from its status as the nation’s largest company by revenue, according to Fortune, which compiles a ranking of the top 500 U.S. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.
Walmart ranks No. 1 on the private TT100.
Amazon announced in May it was rapidly opening small order processing hubs in dozens of U.S. and foreign cities for 30-minute deliveries, catering to people who can’t or don’t want to wait for cough medicine to relieve flu symptoms or tomatoes for tonight’s dinner salad.
Amazon reported net income of $62.65 billion, or $5.75 per share, in the three-month period ended June 30. That compares with $18.16 billion or $1.68 per share, in the year-ago period.
Net sales rose to $200.6 billion from $167.7 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts were expecting sales of $197.03 billion for the latest quarter.
