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Amazon shares are up over 12% in after-hours trading Thursday after the Seattle-based firm’s first quarter results easily beat expectations.
Amazon reported net income of $1.07 per share on $29.1 billion in revenue for the quarter. Analysts polled by Thompson Reuters were looking for earnings of $.58 a share on $27.98 billion in revenue, per CNBC.
One of the brightest spots in Amazon’s earnings report is its growing cloud business. Amazon is most widely known as an online retail business—albeit one bolstered by devices like the Kindle e-reader and Alexa-powered speakers as well as services such as Amazon Prime. But it also offers cloud computing services to other companies through Amazon Web Services, or AWS. AWS customers include firms like Netflix, Comcast, TIME parent Time Inc, and many, many startups.
Amazon’s latest earnings report makes it clear that AWS is a beast. The unit generated $2.6 billion in revenue for the first quarter, representing 64% year-over-year growth. AWS has raked in nearly $9 billion in revenue over the past 12 months. If its growth persists, it won’t be too much longer until AWS is a $10 billion-a-year business-within-a-business.
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