Amazon Stock Soars 9% as Cloud Division Crushes Estimates

Amazon’s stock surged approximately 9% in after-hours trading, fueled by a third-quarter earnings report that overwhelmingly beat Wall Street expectations. The company posted $1.95 earnings per share, far exceeding the $1.58 analysts had predicted. Overall net sales revenue reached $180.17bn, comfortably ahead of the $177.82bn forecast.
The primary engine for this growth was Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm. AWS reported $33bn in revenue, a 20% year-over-year increase. This figure not only topped the $32.42bn estimate but also marked the division’s fastest growth pace since 2022, as noted by CEO Andy Jassy.
This strong performance is particularly striking as it follows a recent, disastrous global outage that took many AWS-dependent services offline. Despite the glitch affecting everything from smart beds to hospital records, the division’s financial momentum appears entirely unchecked, highlighting its dominant market position.
The earnings call also touched on Amazon’s ambitions in the AI sector, where it faces stiff competition from Google and Microsoft. Executives promoted the integration of AI tools like the Rufus shopping assistant and the expansion of the Zoox robotaxi service, which is set to begin testing in Washington D.C.
In a seemingly contradictory move, the stellar financial report comes just as Amazon confirmed plans to lay off 14,000 corporate workers. While a company blog post cited AI and a need to be “nimble,” CEO Jassy later told investors the cuts were “not really AI-driven” but rather a “culture” shift to operate more like a startup.