Amazon sales surged once again in the first quarter of 2024, the company announced on Tuesday – the latest in a series of robust earnings reports for the retail giant. The company attributed the boost to artificial intelligence.
In a statement accompanying the report, the chief executive, Andy Jassy, said Amazon’s continuing focus on AI has “reaccelerat[ed]” the growth rate of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing sector. Revenue at AWS increased 17% year-over-year to $25bn.
The company reported overall revenue of $143.3bn in the first three months of the year – up 13% from the same period in 2023 and surpassing of Wall Street expectations of $142.65bn.
“It was a good start to the year across the business, and you can see that in both our customer experience improvements and financial results,” he said.
The earnings report comes after Amazon announced it would invest $11bn to build more data centers in the state of Indiana, promising at least 1,000 jobs there. Also in the quarter the company extended its partnership with chip manufacturer Nvidia to continue to power its AI offerings.
Advertising sales, meanwhile, increased 24% year-over-year to $11.8bn, after the company expanded its advertising including rolling out ads on Prime Video, starting earlier this year.
Shares were up 5% in after hours trading.
More details soon …