Amazon Says Profits Rose 88% but Cautions Growth May Slow
The New York Times
The company’s cloud computing business showed strong growth, while a forecast for the current quarter disappointed investors.
Amazon saw healthy consumer sales and a pickup in its cloud computing business in its latest quarter, but the company told investors on Thursday to expect slowing growth ahead.
Sales from October through December hit $187.8 billion, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Profit rose 88 percent, to $20 billion. Both were roughly in line with Wall Street expectations.
But the company signaled that 2025 would be off to a weaker start, expecting sales to grow between 5 percent and 9 percent in the current quarter, and that operating profit could potentially be lower than a year ago.
Cloud computing grew 19 percent, to $28.8 billion, in the quarter. The results — seen as a sign that Amazon’s investments in artificial intelligence were paying off — were particularly strong given that the company’s top cloud competitors, Microsoft and Alphabet, recently reported results that underwhelmed investors. In the same quarter of 2023, Amazon’s cloud business grew just 13 percent.
Investors are also focused on Amazon’s cloud computing business because it has become a profit engine for the company. Operating profit for the cloud business was $10.6 billion, which accounted for half of Amazon’s overall operating profit.
The tech industry has been shaken by the recent release of an efficient artificial intelligence system by a Chinese start-up, DeepSeek. Amazon quickly made DeepSeek's system available for customers to use, saying it is an example of how Amazon has built its approach to let users easily mix and match different A.I. tools.
The reality star who rose to fame on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” is being investigated for domestic violence along with the father of one of her children.
A new study found that women who went through so-called premature menopause had 40 percent more fatal and nonfatal heart attacks over the course of their lives.
In a stroke of luck, astronomers saw the comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) break into four or five fragments in November after it passed close to the sun.
New A.I. bots can do more than just chat. They can edit files, send emails, book trips and cause trouble.
The series, “inspired” by the story of a royal dresser later convicted of murder, is getting added attention over the former Duchess of York’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Lawyers for both sides in the federal lawsuit, brought by six medical organizations, are trying to understand the ramifications of the judge’s decision.
Andy Weir discusses his science-fueled novel “Project Hail Mary,” which has been adapted into a film that opens in theaters on Friday.
After years of criticism and financial risk, Palantir, Anthropic and small start-ups are generating rewards from their investments in defense tech.
In a legal filing, the government said it questioned whether the A.I. start-up could be a “trusted partner” in wartime, which led it to label the company a supply chain risk.
Before humanity sent satellites, telescopes, humans and weapons into space, Robert Goddard experimented with the first liquid-fueled rocket on his aunt’s farm.
A draft State Department memo outlines ways the Trump administration may ratchet up pressure on the African country by ending health support “on a massive scale.”
A Florida bill that would have regulated artificial intelligence, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, failed to gain traction after President Trump made it clear he did not want states to rein in the technology.
The series, “inspired” by the story of a royal dresser later convicted of murder, is getting added attention over the former Duchess of York’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.