Amazon reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue, driven by accelerating growth in its cloud computing business, even as the company continued to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
The e-commerce and technology giantAmazon posted revenue of US$200.6 billion for the quarter ended 30 June, surpassing analysts’ expectations of US$196.16 billion.
Earnings per share came in at US$5.75, although the figure was not directly comparable with market forecasts because it included a significant one-off gain from investments. Net income for the quarter included US$53.4 billion in non-operating pre-tax other income, largely linked to Amazon’s investment in AI startup Anthropic.
The results reflected strong momentum in Amazon Web Services (AWS), where revenue increased 37 per cent year-on-year to US$42.2 billion, marking the cloud division’s fastest growth in 18 quarters as businesses expanded their AI workloads.
Amazon continued to increase spending on AI infrastructure, with trailing 12-month capital expenditure reaching US$173 billion. The company said the sharp rise in property and equipment purchases primarily reflected investments aimed at expanding AI capacity and supporting growing demand for its cloud and AI services.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy said both AWS’ AI business and its custom chips business surpassed annual revenue run rates of US$25 billion during the quarter. He also highlighted a 26 per cent increase in advertising revenue and said Prime delivery speeds reached record levels during the first half of the year.
Despite the strong quarterly performance, Amazon issued a softer-than-expected sales forecast for the current quarter. The company expects third-quarter revenue to range between US$197 billion and US$202 billion, below analysts’ consensus estimate of US$203.9 billion.
Amazon forecast third-quarter operating income of between US$22.5 billion and US$26.5 billion, compared with US$17.4 billion in the same period last year.
The results suggest Amazon’s substantial investment in AI is beginning to deliver stronger cloud growth, although the continued spending has weighed on free cash flow. Management nonetheless expressed confidence in sustained demand for its AI services and projected another quarter of double-digit revenue growth alongside higher operating income.
