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Meta Platforms (META), the technology company operating Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, rebounded approximately 1.9% in Friday's regular session after Amazon'

Amazon logo outside an Amazon warehouse in Manchester, Britain, October 28, 2025. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

SummaryCompaniesLawsuit challenges claims such as 'dolphin safe,' 'sustainable,' 'wild caught'Amazon allegedly misled consumers into buying or overpaying for tuna, salmonJuly 31 (Reuters) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O), opens new tab was sued on Friday by consumers ​who accused the retailer of misrepresenting the environmental benefits of seafood sold ‌on its platform, a practice known as greenwashing.

In a proposed class action in Seattle federal court, consumers said labels containing phrases such as "dolphin safe," "responsibly sourced," "sustainable," "wild caught" and "MSC Certified Sustainable Seafood” misled them ​into believing Amazon's seafood sourcing causes minimal harm to oceans and the ​environment.

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The consumers called such representations unsubstantiated or materially false because most ⁠fishing vessels are not publicly tracked, and some vessels obscure their whereabouts by ​disabling electronic devices known as transponders. They also said at least one-fifth of imported ​wild-caught seafood is not responsibly or sustainably sourced.

"Amazon nevertheless markets the greenwashed seafood products using broad sustainability messaging without providing disclosures necessary to prevent consumer deception," the complaint said.

The Seattle-based company is ​the second-largest U.S. grocer with more than $150 billion of gross sales in 2025, Chief ​Executive Andy Jassy said on an April 29 conference call with analysts.

Amazon and lawyers who represent ‌it ⁠in other consumer class actions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The company faces frequent lawsuits over products sold on its platform, including by outside sellers.

BUMBLE BEE, CHICKEN OF THE SEA, STARKISTThe lawsuit targets dozens of tuna, salmon and other seafood products ​under brands including ​Bumble Bee, Chicken ⁠of the Sea, StarKist and Amazon's own 365 by Whole Foods Market.

Plaintiffs led by Madeleine Rogow of Los Angeles and Adam ​Sorkin of Chicago said they would not have bought or would ​have paid ⁠less for their seafood had Amazon disclosed its "true sustainable nature."

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages and restitution for people in the United States for Amazon's alleged violations ⁠of Washington ​consumer protection laws.

The respective parents of Bumble Bee, ​Chicken of the Sea and StarKist — Taiwan's FCF, Thai Union Group (TU.BK), opens new tab and South Korea's Dongwon Industries (006040.KS), opens new tab — are not ​defendants in Friday's lawsuit.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by David Gaffen

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

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U.S. stocks settled higher as Amazon kept the artificial-intelligence recovery rolling.

Record market-cap moves for the tech giants end in a 1% Nasdaq gain.

Amazon (AMZN) received a higher price target from TD Cowen after its latest results showed faster cloud growth and stronger operating performance.TD Cowen lifte

Key Takeaways Amazon reported Q2 net sales of $200.6 billion, up 20% year over year, with operating income rising 43%.AMZN's AWS revenues climbed 37% year over year, marking its fastest growth rate in 18 quarters.Amazon expects Q3 net sales of $197B-$202B and operating income of $22.5-$26.5B. Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2026 net income of $5.75 per share, more than triple the $1.68 per share earned in the second quarter of 2025. The sharp jump was driven largely by a non-operating pre-tax gain of $53.4 billion tied to the company's investment in Anthropic, reflected in "Other income (expense), net."

Adjusted earnings came in at $1.88 per share compared with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.83.

Net sales of $200.6 billion rose 20% year over year. The figure beat the consensus mark by 1.77%. Excluding a $0.1 billion favorable impact from foreign exchange, net sales still increased 20% compared with the year-ago period. Growth was broad-based across all three segments, with AWS once again the standout performer.

Operating income increased 43% year over year to $27.5 billion. Operating margin expanded to 13.7% of worldwide net sales, up from 11.4% in the year-ago quarter and ahead of the 13.1% posted in the first quarter of 2026.

Top-Line DetailsNet product sales rose 14% year over year to $77.6 billion from $68.2 billion. Net service sales increased 24% year over year to $123 billion from $99.5 billion.

By segment, North America revenues increased 16% year over year to $116.2 billion. International revenues rose 15% year over year to $42.2 billion.

AWS revenues jumped 37% year over year to $42.2 billion, marking the segment's fastest growth rate in 18 quarters and pushing its annualized revenue run rate to $169 billion.

Third-party seller services revenues rose 16% year over year (excluding FX) to $46.8 billion, while worldwide paid units grew 17% year over year. Third-party sellers accounted for 61% of worldwide paid units.

Advertising services revenues increased 26% year over year to $19.8 billion. Subscription services revenues, which include Prime membership fees, rose 12% year over year to $13.7 billion.

Physical store sales rose 4% year over year to $5.79 billion from $5.60 billion. Online store sales rose 15% year over year (excluding FX) to $70.4 billion.

AWS and AI DevelopmentsAWS' AI business and its chips business — spanning Graviton, Trainium and Nitro — each surpassed a $25 billion annualized revenue run rate, with both growing at triple-digit percentage rates year over year.

Anthropic and OpenAI, described as the two leading AI labs, made multi-year, multi-gigawatt commitments to Trainium. A number of AI startups, including NEURA Robotics and Odyssey, along with larger enterprises such as Uber and Pinterest, also adopted or expanded Trainium usage.

Amazon released Graviton5 into general availability, citing up to 25% better compute performance than Graviton4 and up to 30-40% better price-performance than comparable instances; Graviton is now used by 98% of the top 1,000 EC2 customers, with revenue commitments up nearly 3x quarter over quarter.

More than 10 fully managed foundation models were added to Amazon Bedrock during the quarter, including OpenAI's GPT-5.6, Anthropic's Claude Opus 5, Google DeepMind's Gemma 4 and SpaceXAI's Grok 4.3. Bedrock customer spend in the quarter exceeded the combined spend of all prior quarters, and more customers were added in the past six months than in Bedrock's first two years.

Amazon previewed AWS Continuum, a vulnerability discovery and remediation tool and expanded Bedrock AgentCore with new Payments, Web Search and Harness capabilities. The company also introduced Lambda MicroVMs with stateful sessions lasting up to eight hours, a next-generation OpenSearch Serverless offering scaling up to 20x faster than its predecessor, and a new log analytics engine for Amazon OpenSearch Service delivering up to 4x better price performance.

Amazon committed $1 billion to launch AWS Forward Deployed Engineering, embedding AI engineers with customers such as the Allen Institute, Cox Automotive, the NBA, the NFL, Ricoh and Southwest Airlines. It also announced general availability of AWS Secret Cloud for Industry, with Northrop Grumman as its first classified-workload customer, alongside a commitment of up to $1 billion in cloud credits to support U.S. Intelligence Community cloud migration.

New AWS customer agreements were signed with Warner Bros. Discovery, Vodafone, Siemens Energy, Ryanair, Pinterest, Snowflake, Moody's, Danske Bank, the WNBA, Pennymac, Fiserv, WPP Enterprise Solutions and several others.

Kiro, Amazon's spec-driven coding agent, became available on iOS, with usage tripling quarter over quarter, and AWS DevOps Agent gained new release-management capabilities.

Consumer, Prime and LogisticsAmazon delivered over 40% more items same-day or overnight in the first half of 2026 compared with the prior-year period, with Grocery and Everyday Essentials growing meaningfully faster than the rest of the business.

Amazon Now, the company's ultra-fast delivery service, expanded to 80 new U.S. cities and towns plus several cities in Egypt, bringing coverage to nine countries and more than 250 cities and towns, with gross sales and units sold up more than 80% quarter over quarter, and customers served over 60% quarter over quarter.

Rufus and Alexa+ were combined into Alexa for Shopping, an agentic shopping assistant; active users nearly doubled and interactions rose more than 5x year over year. Alexa+ was also expanded to Germany, Austria, France and Brazil; customers who use Alexa for Shopping spend over 40% more per order, and Alexa+ trial users sign up for Prime at a nearly 25% higher rate.

Amazon Supply Chain Services launched, letting outside businesses use Amazon's own logistics network, with Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands' End and American Eagle Outfitters among the first customers. Amazon Business reached $60 billion in annualized gross sales, with item selection up nearly 30% year over year.

A next-generation version of Proteus, Amazon's autonomous warehouse robot, was introduced, capable of moving goods up to 1,300 pounds and taking plain-language, conversational direction from employees.

Amazon Pharmacy more than doubled (2x) its new customer base in the first half of 2026, with same-day prescription deliveries growing nearly 5x and out-of-pocket customer savings rising more than 400% year over year to almost $250 million so far in 2026. Ads Agent, which lowers cost-per-impression by 8% and cost-per-acquisition by 6% for advertisers who use it, expanded to 11 new countries this year.

On Prime Video, the series premiere of Off Campus drew 36 million global viewers in its first 12 days, becoming the platform's third-highest-viewed series debut ever. The NBA's inaugural season on Prime Video peaked at 6.5 million U.S. viewers for a Game 7 broadcast, with European viewership more than doubling year over year. NASCAR's second season on the platform averaged 2.3 million viewers.

Amazon completed four additional satellite launches for its Amazon Leo low Earth orbit network, bringing the constellation to nearly 400 satellites — enough, the company said, to begin initial satellite Internet service later this year.

Operating DetailsNorth America segment operating income rose 21% year over year to $9.1 billion from $7.5 billion, with operating margin flat at 7.9%. International segment operating income rose 15% year over year to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion, with operating margin flat at 4.1%. AWS segment operating income surged 64% year over year to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion, with AWS operating margin expanding to 39.4% from 32.9%.

Balance Sheet and Cash FlowAs of June 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents stood at $78.2 billion, down from $101.8 billion as of March 31, 2026. Marketable securities totaled $44.8 billion as of June 30, 2026, up from $41.3 billion in the previous quarter.

Long-term debt was $128.9 billion at the end of the reported quarter, up from $119.1 billion at the end of the previous quarter.

Operating cash flow for the trailing 12 months increased to $161.4 billion compared with $121.1 billion in the prior-year period.

Free cash flow for the trailing 12 months swung to an outflow of $7.6 billion compared with an inflow of $18.2 billion a year earlier, driven by a $66.1 billion year-over-year increase in net property and equipment purchases tied to AI infrastructure investment.

Capital expenditures on property and equipment totaled $54.2 billion in the quarter, up 68% from $32.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

GuidanceFor the third quarter of 2026, Amazon expects net sales between $197 billion and $202 billion, indicating growth of 9% to 12% compared with the third quarter of 2025. This guidance reflects an unfavorable foreign exchange impact of approximately 80 basis points and a sequential headwind from Prime Day shifting into the second quarter; excluding the Prime Day timing shift in both years, third-quarter growth would be nearly 400 basis points higher.

Operating income for the third quarter is expected to be between $22.5 billion and $26.5 billion, suggesting growth of 29% to 52% compared with $17.4 billion in the third quarter of 2025.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

The S&P 500 held a 0.5% gain near 7,472 while small caps turned lower, a day after tech’s bounce off correction territory.

• Apple stock is showing notable weakness. What’s behind AAPL decline?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 253 points, or 0.5%, to 52,461, absorbing the steepest drop among its components from Apple.

The Nasdaq 100 added 0.4% to 28,208, while the small-cap Russell 2000 slipped 0.5% to 2,930.

The bond market did the session’s heavy lifting. The 10-year Treasury yield rose six basis points to 4.74%, back at its highest level since January 2025, while the 30-year held at 5.27%, territory last visited in 2007. The 2-year yield edged up three basis points to 4.29%.

Hawkish Fed rhetoric did the pushing.

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said he would prefer to begin with smaller rate hikes now rather than wait, while Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack warned that the longer inflation stays elevated, the costlier it becomes to fix — both were among the three dissenters who voted for a quarter-point hike at this week’s meeting.

Markets still price roughly a two-thirds probability of a 25-basis-point increase in September, down from nearly 80% before Chair Kevin Warsh‘s press conference.

Friday’s Performance In Major U.S. IndicesAccording to the Benzinga Pro platform:

AMZN and APPL Shape Friday’s Sector MoversAmazon delivered what analysts called the cleanest beat of the hyperscaler season: earnings of $5.75 per share versus the $1.82 consensus on revenue of $200.6 billion, with AWS growing 37% — its fastest clip in 18 quarters — and capital spending guided up to $220 billion this year. 

Despite a record June quarter for Apple, with revenue up 16% to $109.4 billion and iPhone sales up 21.7%, the company guided September-quarter revenue growth of 9% to 11%, below the 12% consensus, citing the same memory and advanced-chip shortage that is enriching its suppliers, while Services revenue of $30.74 billion and Greater China both missed. 

The Western Union Co. (NYSE:WU) lost 15% on mixed results and lowered guidance.

Friday’s Russell 1000 Top GainersFriday’s Russell 1000 Top LosersMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Amazon's latest earnings may have changed the AI narrative around the company. Mizuho's Jordan Klein joins Bloomberg to explain why accelerating AWS growth, rising demand for Amazon's custom AI chips and improving AI monetization across the business have strengthened the investment case, and why he believes Amazon remains one of the biggest winners in the AI infrastructure race.

31.7.2026 19:46

Americké akciové trhy se dnes obchodují v oscilačním módu, když silné výsledky Amazonu a pokračující zájem o téma AI narážejí na jestřábí komentáře představitelů Fedu, růst výnosů a výrazný propad Applu. Amazon posiluje takřka 15 % po nejrychlejším růstu tržeb za více než čtyři roky a navázal tak na pozitivně přijaté výsledky Microsoftu (MSFT +2,72 %) a Alphabetu (GOOG +6,14%), které investorům dodaly větší důvěru, že vysoké investice do umělé inteligence začínají přinášet viditelný efekt. Naopak Apple ztrácí nebývale vysoká % po varování, že růst zasáhnou omezení v dodávkách, a zároveň přetrvávají obavy z dopadu vyšších cen iPhonů. Tržní náladu brzdí nejistota kolem sazeb poté, co Fed tento týden ponechal základní sazbu beze změny, ale několik představitelů centrální banky veřejně podpořilo potřebu dalšího zvýšení sazeb kvůli inflačním rizikům. Makrodatem dnešního dne byl červnový Index spotřebitelské důvěry University of Michigan, ktrerý předčil očekávání. 

Z hlediska sektorů dnes nejvíce vyniká zbytná spotřeba, která díky prudkému růstu Amazonu přidává kolem 5 %, zatímco technologický sektor ztrácí přes 1,6 % pod tlakem Applu. Polovodiče se po slabém červenci stabilizují jen částečně; Philadelphia Semiconductor Index je dnes poblíž nuly, ale za celý měsíc ztrácí zhruba 20 %, což by znamenalo nejhorší měsíční pokles od roku 2008. Naopak širší trh mimo největší technologické tituly působí odolněji, když rovnoměrně vážený index S&P 500 míří ke čtvrtému měsíčnímu růstu v řadě. Výnos dvouletého amerického dluhopisu vzrostl o 7 bazických bodů na 4,29 % a desetiletý výnos posílil o 6,35 bodu na 4,727 %, nejvýše od ledna 2025; třicetiletý výnos se dostal na 5,2584 %, tedy nejvýše od poloviny roku 2007. Ropa v červenci výrazně rostla a dnes znovu zdražuje kvůli narušené dopravě přes Hormuzský průliv, zatímco zlato klesá o 1,52 % na 4 040,70 USD za unci.

Z jednotlivých titulů dominuje Amazon, jehož výsledky znovu přitáhly kapitál do AI a cloudového tématu, protože silný růst cloudu zmírnil obavy z vysokých kapitálových výdajů. Microsoft přidává nadále roste po předchozím rekordním jednodenním růstu a výhledu silné tvorby hotovosti do fiskálního roku 2027, roste Alphabet i Meta. V polovodičích posiluje Nvidia (NVDA +2,2 %), zatímco Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR +8,52 %) skáče po výhledu tržeb pro třetí kvartál nad odhady analytiků. Na opačné straně stojí Apple s poklesem o 9,6 % kvůli varování před dopadem dodavatelských omezení a GoDaddy, který propadá o 20 % po zúžení celoročního výhledu tržeb. Výsledky reportoval Exxon (XOM -1,64 %), který navyšuje produkci avšak potíže v Hormuzu výsledky kazí. Mimo USA zaujal jihokorejský KOSPI růstem o 17,91 %, když se prudce odrazil po předchozích ztrátách a stal se symbolem extrémních výkyvů nálady vůči AI a polovodičovým akciím.

Index S&P 500 roste o 0,46 % na 7471,98 b.
Index Dow Jones roste o 0,48 % na 52438,21 b.
Index Nasdaq Composite roste o 0,43 % na 25277 b.

Nejsilnější sektory S&P Změna Nejslabší sektory S&P Změna Nezbytná spotřeba +5,9 % Základní materiály -2,6 % Sektor komunikací +3,8 % Informační technologie -1,1 % Průmysl +1 % Zdravotní péče -0,5 % Nejsiln ější akcie S&P Změna Nejslabší akcie S&P Změna Amazon.com (AMZN) +15 % GODADDY I (GDDY) -21 % Dexcom (DXCM) +11 % COINBS GBL A O (COIN) -12 % Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) +9,2 % Corteva (CTVA) -11 % VERTIV HLD A O (VRT) +8,2 % Apple (AAPL) -9,7 % Eaton (ETN) +7,2 % Stryker (SYK) -6,7 % Zdroj: Reuters

Martin Varecha
Fio banka, a.s.
Prohlášení

Amazon revealed Thursday that it has received $600 million in refunds after many of President Trump’s tariffs were struck down – and that it plans to return some of that cash to customers, one of the few major corporations to make such a commitment.

Amazon’s finance chief Brian Olsvavsky sketched the refund process during a Thursday earnings call.

“We’ve identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we’ve passed specific import charges onto customers, and when we receive those refunds, we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them,” he said.

Many of President Trump’s tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court in February. AP Photo/Alex Brandon “Otherwise, like other large retailers, we’ll utilize refunds to continue to invest in low prices for customers.”

Amazon executives have not shared details on how many customers are eligible for tariff refunds or when they can expect to receive the cash.

They also didn’t say which products were initially affected by the tariffs.

Amazon did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant had not previously confirmed whether or not it was applying for the tariff refunds.

Trump said earlier this year that he would “remember” and be “honored” if Amazon and other companies did not seek refunds.

The Supreme Court ruled in February that many of Trump’s tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegal, arguing that he exceeded his presidential authority to implement the new taxes.

In June, a slew of American companies saw cash land in their accounts as the US government rushed to disburse $49 billion worth of tariff refunds before the end of the month, as The Post reported.

Amazon did not share details on how many customers are eligible for tariff refunds or when they can expect to receive the cash. Getty Images As of July, US Customs and Border Protection, which is responsible for overseeing tariffs and tariff refunds, has paid out $70 billion of the $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs owed to companies.

Major US businesses including Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Nike, General Motors, FedEx and Costco, have all said they planned to apply for tariff refunds – though very few have pledged to share those payouts with customers who were hit with higher prices.

In April, Trump was asked whether he believes some companies, including Amazon, had not yet sought refunds because they were worried about “offending” him.

“Brilliant if they don’t do that,” the president said at the time. “I’m very honored by what you just said … If they don’t do that, I’ll remember them.”

Later that month, Amazon said it had ruled out a potential plan to display tariff surcharges on product listings on its site after founder Jeff Bezos reportedly got a furious phone call from Trump.

In May, Amazon was slapped with a class action lawsuit in Seattle federal court from customers who alleged they were owed refunds for paying tariff-inflated prices on Amazon goods – and that the company wasn’t seeking refunds to “curry favor” with the Trump administration.

On Thursday, Olsavsky said Amazon only received a “limited” refund amount in its second quarter because it had moved around its inventory ahead of time to prepare for the tariffs and that third-party sellers, who sell the majority of goods on Amazon, absorbed the bulk of the levies.

FedEx has announced that it will start issuing tariff refunds to customers in August, but most companies have pocketed the returns while Americans continue to face stubbornly high prices at stores.

Key Takeaways Amazon's Q2 revenues rose 20% to $200.6B as operating income increased 43% to $27.5B.AWS growth accelerated 36.7% year over year, with AI and cloud workloads driving demand.Amazon raised expected 2026 cash capital expenditures to approximately $220B for AI investments. Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) used its second-quarter earnings call to emphasize accelerating AWS growth, expanding artificial intelligence demand and a major infrastructure investment cycle. Management said that artificial intelligence (AI) workloads are driving broader cloud adoption while outlining a higher capital spending outlook.

The discussion centered on balancing near-term free cash flow pressure from AI investments with expectations for long-term returns from expanded AWS capacity.

AMZN Focuses on AWS ExpansionCEO Andrew Jassy said that AWS revenue growth accelerated for the fifth consecutive quarter, reaching 36.7% year over year in the second quarter. Jassy highlighted a $169 billion annualized revenue run rate and a $496 billion backlog as evidence of sustained demand.

Jassy said that AWS is benefiting from both AI and core cloud workloads, with customers increasingly placing inference applications near existing data and infrastructure. He noted that AI revenue and chips businesses each surpassed $25 billion annualized revenue run rates.

The company reported AWS operating income of $16.6 billion, with segment operating margin reaching 39.4%. Management attributed profitability to efficiency gains, capacity optimization and custom silicon initiatives.

Amazon Raises AI Investment AmbitionsAmazon increased its expected 2026 cash capital expenditures to approximately $220 billion, up from a previous estimate of about $200 billion. Jassy said that higher memory costs contributed to the increase.

Management explained that data center investments have long useful lives, while servers and networking equipment are purchased closer to customer demand. Jassy said that the company expects revenue growth to eventually outpace incremental capital spending.

Amazon reported trailing 12-month free cash flow of negative $7.6 billion, primarily due to increased property and equipment investments related to artificial intelligence.

AMZN Expands AI Product EcosystemJassy highlighted Amazon Bedrock, SageMaker AI and Bedrock AgentCore as key parts of the company’s AI strategy. He said that Bedrock customers spent more in the second quarter than in all prior quarters combined.

During analyst questions, Jassy said that Amazon does not need to rely on a single frontier model because customers want access to multiple models. He added that Amazon is still developing its own frontier model to improve cost control and customization.

The company also pointed to growth in agentic applications, including Kiro coding tools, Amazon Quick and AWS security offerings. Management said that Kiro usage tripled quarter over quarter.

Amazon Sees Broad Consumer MomentumAmazon’s stores business continued improving through faster delivery, expanded selection and AI-powered shopping tools. The company delivered more than 40% additional same-day or overnight items in the first half of the year compared with the prior-year period.

Management highlighted Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service, which expanded to more cities and reported more than 80% quarter-over-quarter growth in gross sales and units sold.

Amazon also cited growth in Alexa shopping features, with active users nearly doubling in the quarter and interactions increasing more than fivefold year over year.

AMZN Delivers Strong Results and GuidanceAmazon reported second-quarter revenues of $200.6 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $197.10 billion, up 20% year over year.  The company reported earnings of $1.88 per share, which exceeded the consensus mark of $1.83 per share.  Operating income increased 43% to $27.5 billion.

CFO Brian Olsavsky said that third-quarter revenue guidance is expected to be between $197 billion and $202 billion, while operating income is projected to be between $22.5 billion and $26.5 billion.

Management noted that Prime Day timing and foreign exchange pressure affect comparisons in the third quarter. Excluding Prime Day timing differences, third-quarter growth would have been nearly 400 basis points higher.

Amazon Maintains Long-Term AI StrategyAnalysts questioned whether Amazon could slow infrastructure spending and how AI demand would develop beyond 2026. Jassy said that customer demand remains strong, with significant capacity already reserved for future periods.

Jassy also said that Amazon continues exploring broader use of its Trainium chips, including potential direct customer access outside AWS services.

The company emphasized that AI investment remains central to its strategy, with management focused on expanding AWS capacity while maintaining long-term returns.

Zacks Signals for AMZNPresently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions and is designed to help identify stocks with stronger potential over a one-to-three-month timeframe. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The stock has a Value Score of D, a Growth Score of B, a Momentum Score of D and a VGM Score of C. Zacks Style Scores evaluate value, growth and momentum characteristics, with higher grades representing stronger attributes within each category.

The Zacks Rank and Style Scores can change as analysts update earnings estimates following quarterly results.

Amazon (AMZN) is experiencing a significant surge following a robust Q2 earnings report that exceeded expectations. The company reported a 20% year-over-year re

Marley Kayden discusses Amazon's (AMZN) latest earnings, highlighting 37% year-over-year AWS sales growth, increased CapEx, and the company's first ever quarter with more than $200 billion in revenue, noting Wall Street was broadly impressed with the results. She explains the key drivers behind the rally and what stood out most in the report.

Heading into Amazon’s (AMZN +15.17%) second-quarter earnings print, the stock had struggled to overcome fears of overinvestment in artificial intelligence and deteriorating free cash flow (FCF).

But it turns out the market is willing to reward companies that take big bets, as long as there is evidence of big returns.

Amazon reported blowout second-quarter earnings results, crushing Wall Street consensus estimates for earnings and revenue, even as it raised its full-year capital expenditure guidance.

Revenue of roughly $200.6 billion beat estimates by over $4 billion and rose nearly 20% year over year. Operating income surged over 43%. Earnings came in particularly high, due to a pre-tax gain of over $53 billion, largely from Amazon’s stake in Anthropic.

Amazon stock had surged roughly 13.4%, as of 11:48 a.m. ET today, not only due to the results, but also because Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivered tremendous news to shareholders.

Image source: Amazon.com.

Demand is off the chartsAmazon is planning to spend more than any other hyperscaler on AI infrastructure this year. As a result, the company’s capex guidance has spooked investors.

Amazon had guided for $200 billion in capex in 2026, and Jassy just raised that guidance to $220 billion, largely due to surging memory prices.

Amazon is feeling the impact of this level of investment. FCF turned negative in the quarter to the tune of roughly $7.6 billion.

But the results have also started to show up, particularly in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud division, which also provides compute for AI.

AWS revenue of $42.2 billion in the quarter beat estimates by roughly $1.7 billion, increasing 37% year over year. In fact, that’s the fastest quarter of AWS growth in 18 quarters when AWS revenue was less than half of what it currently is.

It’s this aspect of the business where Jassy delivered tremendous news to shareholders.

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“Even at that [capex] amount, we will still not have enough capacity to meet all the demand we have in 2026, and I believe this dynamic will also be true in 2027, too. In fact, the demand we already have for 2028 is striking. Remember, enterprises are still very early in using inference at scale in their current production applications,” Jassy said on the company’s earnings call.

Jassy believes the company is well-positioned to generate strong returnsJassy remains optimistic about the returns on invested capital (ROIC) the company can generate after the heavy upfront investments.

Jassy explained that there are two major parts of its large AI investment: data centers and the servers and networking equipment that go into the data centers.

Data center investments are made two years before the servers go in, and therefore before the data centers can be monetized. Once the data centers open, Amazon will generate significant revenue for over 30 years without another major upfront investment, according to Jassy.

Servers and networking equipment, though, run on a shorter cycle. Jassy said this equipment is purchased only a few months before being put to use. The break-even on this investment is under three years, while most AI capacity is being contracted on five-year contracts, he said.

Therefore, there is significant FCF generation in the two to three years after break-even, and AWS has a strong track record of pulling this forward, Jassy added.

Now, I think the bears would dispute some of Jassy’s assumptions about long-term AI compute demand and the useful life of some of this equipment.

It’s hard to know how everything will play out, but I think Amazon is a better bet on AI than many other companies because of its track record, the diversity of its businesses, and earnings multiples that remain fairly close to historical averages.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)---- $AMZN #Amazon--A class-action lawsuit accuses Amazon of misleading consumers about environmental sustainability of its seafood products, according to Hagens Berman.

BNP Paribas analyst Nick Jones said Amazon delivered a strong second quarter, with AWS momentum supporting higher AI-related investment and a path to a much larger cloud opportunity.

AWS Strength Supports The Bull CaseJones kept a positive view on Amazon with a $345 price forecast, implying 46% upside from the July 30 price of $235.50.

He said Amazon beat expectations across the board, driven mainly by AWS and advertising services. Worldwide net sales reached $201 billion, about 2% above the $197 billion consensus estimate. AWS beat consensus by about 4%, while advertising services topped expectations by about 3%.

Jones said AWS backlog grew more than 150% year over year and 36% quarter over quarter to $496 billion, supporting Amazon’s elevated investment levels.

Amazon Profit And EBITDA Beat ExpectationsJones said operating income came in at $27.5 billion, about 16% above the $23.6 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted EBITDA reached $53.5 billion, about 5% above the $50.8 billion estimate.

He said Amazon remains positioned as a key implementation layer in the AI ecosystem, while its other businesses can benefit from AI integrations.

Jones also said management now sees AWS as at least twice its previous several-hundred-billion-dollar opportunity and potentially a $1 trillion business over time.

Guidance Reflects Prime Day Shift And Higher CapexJones said Amazon guided third-quarter worldwide net sales to $197 billion to $202 billion, with the midpoint about 2% below the $204 billion consensus estimate. However, he said growth would be about 400 basis points higher after excluding the Prime Day shift between 2025 and 2026.

Amazon guided operating income to $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion, with the midpoint slightly below the $25.1 billion consensus estimate. The company also raised its full-year 2026 capital spending outlook to $220 billion from $200 billion, citing higher memory costs.

Jones attributed Amazon’s after-hours gain to strong second-quarter results, robust AWS momentum and better visibility into favorable data-center return dynamics.

The stock carries a Buy rating with an average price forecast of $326.10. Recent analyst moves include:

DA Davidson: Neutral (Maintains forecast to $250.00) (July 31) Wells Fargo: Overweight (Raises forecast to $328.00) (July 31) Cantor Fitzgerald: Overweight (Lowers forecast to $320.00) (July 31) Amazon Price ActionAMZN Stock Price Activity: Amazon.com shares were up 15.09% at $271.03 at the time of publication on Friday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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Amazon.com Today

$270.63 +35.13 (+14.92%)

As of 12:48 PM Eastern

This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.

52-Week Range$196.00▼

$278.56P/E Ratio32.37

Price Target$321.40

For most of this year, Amazon.com Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN has been dogged by a single nagging question: would its enormous spending on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure ever translate into faster growth?

Its Q2 earnings report, delivered Thursday night, offered the most emphatic answer yet, and the market is responding in kind - Amazon shares were trading up roughly 12% in Friday's pre-market session.

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The contrast with some of its mega-cap peers this week could hardly be starker. While Apple Inc NASDAQ: AAPL delivered a strong quarter on Thursday night, it was being sold off thanks to its management’s cautious guidance. Amazon not only topped expectations for the past quarter but also raised them for the coming quarters. In other words, where Apple disappointed investors, Amazon pleased them.

AWS' Roar Just Got Even LouderThe company’s cloud division was the undisputed highlight, with revenue growing 37% year-over-year, its fastest pace in 18 quarters. For a business of AWS's already enormous scale, managing to accelerate like this is truly remarkable, and it goes right to the heart of the entire investment case.

This matters so much because AWS is where the AI spending debate has been fought. As was highlighted heading into the report, the bear case rested on the fear that Amazon was pouring vast sums into infrastructure without a clear payoff. An acceleration of this magnitude blows a sizeable hole in that argument, suggesting the capacity being built is generating revenue almost as quickly as it comes online.

Just as encouragingly, the profitability came through alongside the growth. AWS’s operating income was substantial, and total operating income across the whole company jumped more than 40% year-over-year, with margins expanding at the same time. Put simply, this is fresh growth that’s not costing profits, which is precisely what makes it so compelling.

The Spending Isn't Slowing DownIf there was a catch, it was the same one that has been hanging over the entire sector. Amazon is still spending prodigiously, and it actually raised its capital expenditure plans for the year, citing the higher memory chip costs that have become a recurring theme across technology this earnings season.

That’s a substantial sum by any measure, and it means the questions about free cash flow have not disappeared entirely. Heavy investment continues to weigh on the amount of cash the business ultimately generates, and that will remain a point of focus for as long as the buildout continues.

The crucial difference this quarter is that investors could finally see what all that money is buying. When capital spending is climbing, but the associated revenue is accelerating even faster, the story shifts from worrying about outflow to sensible investment. That’s exactly the reframing this report delivered, which is why Amazon's stock soared in the aftermath of the release.

Reasons for Caution RemainFor all the enthusiasm, however, the more cautious voices do have some fair points worth acknowledging. The most notable concern is the headline earnings figure, a large chunk of which came from a one-off gain tied to Amazon's stake in Anthropic rather than from its core operations. Strip that out, and the underlying result, while still strong, looks a little less spectacular than the headline suggests.

There is also the perennial question of valuation. Even with the stock still well below its all-time highs, Amazon trades at a full multiple rather than a bargain one, and it could be argued that some rival tech giants offer comparable growth at more attractive prices.

Finally, the guidance for sales in the quarter ahead came in slightly below what Wall Street had hoped for, dampened in part by currency headwinds and some timing quirks. In the euphoria over the AWS acceleration, that softer outlook was largely brushed aside, but it is a reminder that not everything in the report was flawless.

Amazon’s AI Spending Now Has a Stronger Revenue CaseTaken together, this was a report that decisively shifted the narrative in the bulls' favor. The single biggest question mark hanging over Amazon, whether its AI investments would pay off, has been answered more convincingly than at any point this year, and the market's reaction reflects just how important that answer was.

The bears aren’t wrong that the headline numbers were flattered a little, or that the valuation still leaves little room for error. But those feel like quibbles against the bigger picture: a business whose most important division just accelerated at its fastest rate in more than four years, while profitability also increased.

Investors came into this week looking for proof that big tech's enormous bet on AI was working. Where Apple's update seems to have left the market skeptical, Amazon delivered an update to its AI story with the numbers to back it up, and the market looks more than willing to reward it.

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Amazon (AMZN) rose 12.23% premarket after reporting second-quarter net sales up 20% to $200.6 billion, ahead of the $196.47 billion analysts expected. AWS grew

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 30: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during the New York Times DealBook Summit in the Appel Room at the Jazz At Lincoln Center on November 30, 2022 in New York City. The New York Times held its first in person DealBook Summit since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic with speakers from the worlds of financial services, technology, consumer goods, private investment, venture capital, banking, media, public relations, policy, government, and academia. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Amazon stock popped – up 10.8% in Friday pre-market trading – after reporting second quarter results, according to the Wall Street Journal. Investors cheered AWS expectations-beating growth, profitability, and backlog – despite Amazon’s huge capital expenditures and negative free cash flow.

This quarter, investors seem to favor hyperscalers that can demonstrate a return on their AI capital investments. The return is measured in expectations-beating growth and profitability without too much damage to free cash flow. Meta failed the test Wednesday, while Microsoft passed with flying colors, I wrote Thursday.

Today, it’s clear that Amazon did pretty well and its stock has more upside. On revenue acceleration, operating margin, capital intensity and free cash flow, Nvidia’s operations outperformed the pack. Yet, unless Nvidia exceeds investor expectations, its stock may not follow.

Amazon’s Winning Performance And ProspectsAmazon reported expectations-beating growth and operating income for the second quarter.

Revenue increased 20% to $200.61 billion – $4.1 billion above consenus – while operating income soared 43% to $27.5 billion – $2.5 billion above its guided range while reported earnings per share of $5.75 was 216% above expectations with help from $53.4 billion in pre-tax non-operating income, mostly a mark-up on Amazon’s stake in Anthropic

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Investors cared most about AWS’s revenue growth and operating income. Revenue for the unit rose 37% to $42.2 billion – six percentage points above consensus – while operating income of $16.6 billion yielded 39.4% operating margin up about 6,5 percentage points.

The future for this and other Amazon businesses look bright. AWS is "booming," according to CEO Andy Jassy, who disclosed a contracted backlog of $496 billion and a $25 billion annual run rate for both the company’s AI and in-house silicon units (Trainium, Graviton).

Three negatives failed to dent the stock. First, trailing free cash flow swung from an $18.2 billion inflow in Q2 2025 to a $7.6 billion outflow in Q2 2026. Second, third-quarter revenue guidance of $199.5 billion was $4,6 billion below the $204.1 billion analysts wanted. Finally, Amazon raised its 2026 capex guidance by 10% to $220 billion due to rising memory costs.

Why Amazon Stock Rose 11.5%Investors sent Amazon stock up because the company proved it could grow AWS revenue faster than capex. Jassy had told investors that once revenue growth outpaces incremental capex growth, the resulting cash flow and returns become very compelling, reported CNBC.

AWS’s $496 billion backlog attached to a 39.4% margin may have changed investor’s minds: persuading them that rather than an open-ended expense, capex was a shorter-term investment that would yield a jump in profitable growth.

Where Amazon Stock Will Be In A YearAmazon stock has 40% upside according to the TipRanks consensus of 34 analysts. The bullish analysts see the stock – 12 times forward EBITDA, per Jefferies – as trading at a discount to Walmart. The upside comes from AWS’ growth and margin acceleration, the growing custom silicon business which will lower computing cost, and the profitable and rapidly growing advertising business.

A bearish Seeking Alpha model values the company near $156 – making Amazon shares 34% overvalued. The bear cases stresses the uncontrolled rise in capex, negative free cash flow, limited AI cloud computing capacity, and the risk of Anthropic being overvalued.

Why Nvidia Outperforms Amazon On Key MetricsIf the scorecard is revenue acceleration, operating margin, capital intensity and free cash flow, Amazon loses to Nvidia on all four.

Nvidia’s most recent quarter delivered revenue of $81.6 billion, up 85%, with 75% gross margins. Over the last 12 months, Nvidia’s 64% operating margin, $6.6 billion of capex on $119 billion of free cash flow, and 105% return on invested capital, according to Stock Analysis, was much better than Amazon's 13.7% consolidated operating margin and negative free cash flow.

Nvidia also generated $48.6 billion of free cash flow in one quarter and trades near 22 times forward earnings with a consensus price target that’s 56% above the recent price, per Stock Analysis.

Moreover, Nvidia is a leader in the AI chip design industry which is more inherently profitable than the AI cloud services segment.

In a nutshell, Nvidia gets paid to build the AI cloud while Amazon must fund the AI build to keep up with demand.

Markets are higher heading into Friday's open as investors digest developments in the Middle East and another round of major tech earnings. Jenny Horne discusses why crude oil is ticking higher following the latest regional headlines.

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SummaryAmazon.com, Inc.’s Q2 results showed that its record infrastructure spending is beginning to translate into stronger operating returns, led by AWS and advertising.AWS revenue grew 37% year over year, while segment operating income increased 64% and margins remained near 40%, strengthening the case for continued AI investment.Negative [FCF] and softer Q3 revenue guidance remain the main concerns, but Prime Day timing and capacity expansion explain part of the near-term pressure.I maintain a Strong Buy rating and a $325 price target on AMZN, and I am increasing my position by one-third as Amazon’s earnings power becomes more visible. HJBC/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Executive Summary In the past few months or even years, we have started to view Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) as something more than simply an e-commerce company. More than likely you already think of it

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of AMZN, AMZN:CA either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Amazon stock is soaring after the tech giant handily topped estimates in its latest earnings last night.