Amazon's net income nearly doubled to $20 billion, with earnings of $1.86 per share, exceeding expectations. Advertising sales rose 18% to $17.3 billion, slightly below estimates. The company is heavily investing in artificial intelligence, unveiling new AI software models at its AWS conference and planning to release its Alexa generative AI voice service. However, like its competitors Microsoft and Google, Amazon faces investor impatience over high capital expenditures in AI development. The company forecasted an operating profit of $14 billion to $18 billion for the first quarter of 2025, missing the average analyst estimate of $18.35 billion.
Key takeaways:
- Amazon's sales in the last quarter exceeded Wall Street estimates, but shares fell due to cloud computing unit weakness and lower-than-expected revenue estimates.
- The company's cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, reported a 19% rise in revenue, falling short of estimates, amid investor impatience with Big Tech's capital spending and AI investments.
- Amazon's retail business offset cloud weakness with a 7% growth in online sales, surpassing estimates.
- Net income nearly doubled to $20 billion, with earnings per share exceeding expectations at $1.86 compared to $1.49.