Amazon Stock Pops as Earnings Top Estimates, Driven by AWS Growth

Core Insights - Amazon's third-quarter results exceeded analysts' expectations, driven by significant growth in its cloud business, leading to a share price increase of over 9% in after-hours trading [1][2]. Financial Performance - Earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter were reported at $1.95, an increase from $1.43 year-over-year, surpassing analyst consensus [2]. - Revenue rose 13% year-over-year to $180.2 billion, also beating expectations, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales jumping 20% to $33 billion [2]. Future Outlook - Amazon anticipates fourth-quarter revenue to be between $206 billion and $213 billion, compared to the analyst estimate of $208.66 billion [3]. Strategic Initiatives - CEO Andy Jassy highlighted that AI has driven meaningful improvements across Amazon's business, with strong demand in AI and core infrastructure [3]. - The company is focusing on accelerating capacity to meet this demand [3]. Workforce Changes - Amazon announced plans for significant layoffs, reducing its workforce by about 14,000 jobs, as part of cost-cutting measures while investing heavily in AI infrastructure [4].