Amazon smashed Wall Street forecasts in the third quarter, delivering net sales of $180.2 billion, net income of $21.2 billion, and operating margins of 9.7 percent.
And Amazon’s growing dominance in the advertising sector was in full display, with ad revenue soaring by 24 percent year over year to $17.7 billion.
Amazon’s ad sales business encompasses sales on the platforms for sellers and vendors, as well as ads on Prime Video, display advertising, and its burgeoning demand side platform (DSP) business, which now lets advertisers and media buyers buy inventory on effectively every major subscription streaming platform, including Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, Tubi, Fox One, and others.
The company’s blockbuster earnings report came the same week that it announced plans to reduce its workforce by about 14,000 employees, citing the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence technology.
“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly,” the company’s head of HR told staff. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
AI was reflected in the company’s earnings report, with the company touting its custom AI chips, Project Rainier, “a massive AI compute cluster,” new AI foundation models and a slew of AI agent-focused tools and products.
It also touted the debut of the NBA on Prime, and the strong ratings for Thursday Night Football.
“We continue to see strong momentum and growth across Amazon as AI drives meaningful improvements in every corner of our business,” said Andy Jassy, president and CEO, Amazon. “AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022, reaccelerating to 20.2% YoY. We continue to see strong demand in AI and core infrastructure, and we’ve been focused on accelerating capacity – adding more than 3.8 gigawatts in the past 12 months. In Stores, we continue to realize the benefits of innovating in our fulfillment network, and we’re on track to deliver to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever again this year, expand same-day delivery of perishable groceries to over 2,300 communities by end of year, and double the number of rural communities with access to Amazon’s Same-Day and Next-Day Delivery.”
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