Amazon (AMZN) reported first quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines, sending shares of the retail giant up as much as 5% in after-hours trading.
Powered by a strong showing from its cloud computing segment, Amazon continued a wave of Big Tech results that have mostly wowed Wall Street even as investors turn their focus to the conclusion of the Fed’s May policy meeting on Wednesday.
Net sales rose 13% from the same period last year to $143.3 billion, topping analyst expectations of $142.6 billion, per Bloomberg data. The beat was driven by a 16% jump in Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue, which Amazon said is on course to generate $100 billion annually.
The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.98 versus consensus estimates of $0.83.
Like its competitors Microsoft and Alphabet, Amazon is wielding its heft in its cloud computing business to gain an edge in the nascent AI market. AI tools require huge amounts of data and processing power to train and run large language models and their applications, relying on cloud providers to supply vital infrastructure.
Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said on a call with reporters following the report that overall capital expenditures are expected to “meaningfully” increase this year from nearly $50 billion in 2023, driven by higher infrastructure costs to support growth in AWS.
Amazon is seeing strong demand on the AWS side, with customers signing up for longer deals with bigger commitments, many with generative AI components, he said.
Advertising was another strong contributor to Q1 revenue growth. The company matched analyst expectations of $11.8 billion, up 24% from the same period last year.
Even as Amazon dazzled with growth across its businesses, its outlook flashed some signs of a potential pullback in consumer spending.
“What we are seeing is a bit of a continuation of what we’ve said in prior quarters. Customers in the US are being very thoughtful about their spend. They look for deals. They trade down,” Olsavsky said. “And that trend seems to be continuing into Q2.”
Amazon projected Q2 net sales to come in between $144 billion and $149 billion, which is slightly lower than analyst estimates of $150.2 billion, per Bloomberg data.
Amazon’s report arrived a week after its cloud rival and AI competitor Microsoft (MSFT) posted an impressive quarter, beating expectations on the strength of its cloud computing business. The market cheered even louder for Google parent Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) results, which outperformed on the top and bottom lines and came with an announcement of a new dividend, the latest in a trend among tech giants.
Amazon, which has positioned itself as an AI leader, is another player in the race to claim market share and launch new consumer services. In March, Amazon increased its investment in the AI startup Anthropic, pouring in another $2.75 billion to bring its investment total to $4 billion.
Amazon’s stock, which joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) in February, is up about 20% for the year.
