Amazon’s third-quarter financials triggered a 9% spike in its stock, as the company reported numbers that left Wall Street estimates in the dust. The company earned $1.95 per share, far better than the $1.58 expected, on $180.17bn in revenue.
The engine of this growth was the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud unit. AWS saw revenue grow 20% to $33bn, its fastest clip since 2022 and ahead of the $32.42bn forecast.
This growth is especially significant as it follows a recent, disruptive global outage. The financial results show the division’s “stickiness” and the market’s deep reliance on its infrastructure.
The company is also pushing hard on the AI front to compete with rivals. Executives on the call promoted the Rufus shopping assistant and the expansion of the Zoox autonomous driving service.
This strong financial report was delivered alongside news of 14,000 corporate job cuts. CEO Andy Jassy claimed the cuts were “not really AI-driven” but were a “culture” move to foster a “startup-style” operation.
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