Amazon’s cloud division, AWS, is accelerating, with revenue growing 20% year-over-year to $33bn. This pace, the fastest since 2022, powered Amazon to a third-quarter earnings beat that sent its stock up 9%.
CEO Andy Jassy touted the AWS growth, which came in ahead of the $32.42bn Wall Street had estimated. The strong performance is the first financial report since a major global outage, which apparently had no negative effect.
Amazon’s overall net sales reached $180.17bn, surpassing the $177.82bn forecast. The company is leveraging this financial strength to invest heavily in the AI race, aiming to catch rivals like Microsoft and Google.
The earnings call highlighted the Rufus AI shopping assistant and the expansion of Zoox robotaxi testing. These initiatives are key to Amazon’s narrative that it is a major player in the AI boom.
However, the company also confirmed 14,000 corporate layoffs. CEO Andy Jassy told investors the cuts were “culture-driven,” not financial, as part of a push to become more “nimble.”