Amazon delivered a strong first quarter, with revenue and earnings beating expectations and growth accelerating across its core businesses, led by a sharp rebound in cloud computing.
Net sales rose 17% year over year to $181.5 billion, ahead of forecasts, while net income climbed to $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share, significantly above analyst estimates.
Amazon’s cloud division, Amazon Web Services, was a standout performer, with revenue increasing 28% to $37.6 billion, its fastest growth rate in 15 quarters.
CEO Andy Jassy also highlighted momentum in the company’s chips business, which has surpassed a $20 billion annualised revenue run rate, as well as continued expansion in advertising, which now exceeds $70 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue.
Operating income rose to $23.9 billion from $18.4 billion a year earlier, with AWS contributing $14.2 billion of that total.
Retail performance also strengthened, with North America sales up 12% to $104.1 billion. Unit growth in Amazon’s stores segment reached 15% — its highest level since the end of pandemic-era lockdowns.
Related Story
The company’s logistics investments continue to pay off, with more than 1 billion items delivered same-day or overnight so far this year.
Amazon also confirmed it will move its Prime Day event from its traditional July slot to June, marking only the third time the sales event has taken place outside mid-summer.
Looking ahead, the company expects second-quarter revenue to range between $194 billion and $199 billion, above current market expectations.
The results underscore Amazon’s multi-engine growth model, with retail, cloud and advertising all contributing to performance.
“We’re making customers’ lives easier and better every day across all our businesses, and their response is driving significant growth,” Jassy said.
With accelerating cloud demand, continued gains in delivery speed and expanding high-margin businesses, Amazon appears to be entering another phase of scaled, diversified growth.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
