Amazon’s third-quarter earnings were a resounding success, driven by a cloud division that appears unfazed by its own technical failures. Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew 20% to $33bn, its best growth since 2022, despite a recent global outage.
The division’s $33bn in revenue beat the $32.42bn estimate, showing that the outage did not slow its momentum. This cloud strength was the key driver in Amazon’s overall report, which sent its stock up 9%.
Amazon’s total revenue hit $180.17bn, and EPS was $1.95, both figures easily beating Wall Street’s forecasts. The company is also pushing its AI capabilities, highlighting the Rufus shopping assistant and Zoox robotaxis.
The positive financial report was accompanied by the confirmation of 14,000 corporate job cuts.
A company blog post cited AI as a factor in “staying nimble.” However, CEO Andy Jassy told investors the layoffs were “culture-driven” as the company tries to become more “malleable.”