AWS just posted its fifth straight quarter of accelerating growth while Amazon's advertising and AI businesses quietly crossed thresholds that Wall Street has not fully priced in yet. Here is what the numbers actually signal about where shares go next.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) delivered one of its cleanest quarters in years, with AWS accelerating for the fifth straight quarter and advertising growing at 26% pace. The market has yet to fully price in this acceleration. Our Amazon 24/7 Wall St. price target signals meaningful upside.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $256.33 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $340.96 Upside 33.1% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Amazon is $340.96 over the next 12 months, implying 33.1% upside from today’s $256.33. The recommendation is buy with high confidence. AWS growth reaccelerated to 37%, advertising compounds at a $19.8 billion quarterly clip, and the AI and chips businesses each cleared a $25 billion annualized run rate.
Why AWS Just Changed the Conversation Amazon is up 12.49% over the past month and 12.76% year to date, though shares pulled back 2.09% in the last week. The stock sits below its 52-week high of $287.20, leaving room to run.
Q2 revenue hit $200.61 billion, up 19.62%, with operating income of $27.46 billion jumping 43.24%. AWS backlog swelled to $496 billion, and this week’s announcement that Amazon and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) will deliver 2 million additional GPUs for agentic AI underscores the capacity race (all that silicon has to be powered, cooled, and networked by someone, which is the whole premise of our free AI infrastructure report).
Bull Case: $390 and Beyond The bull case hits $390.96, or 52.61% upside. AWS growth stays above 35%, Trainium and Graviton continue capturing custom-silicon share, and Q3 operating income lands near the top of the $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion guide.
Wall Street backs this: 16 analysts rate the stock Strong Buy and 43 rate it Buy, with a consensus target of $327. Advertising at 26% growth is a high-margin flywheel, and Amazon Business runs at a $60 billion annualized clip.
What Could Go Wrong The bear case sits at $291.59, still 13.83% above today. Q2 capex reached $54.21 billion, up 68.44%, and TTM free cash flow turned negative at -$7.6 billion. Long-term debt has risen to fund the buildout.
Andy Jassy noted servers break even within three years and that AWS will “very possibly be a trillion dollar annual revenue business” over time. An 80 basis point FX headwind in Q3 and memory-chip supply volatility remain shorter-term risks.
How Amazon Compares to Microsoft and Alphabet Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is the sharpest AWS comp because Azure directly competes for enterprise AI workloads. Azure grew 43% in fiscal Q4 26 with a P/E of 28x. AMZN’s 21x earnings multiple looks conservative against that.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is the second natural comp, with Google Cloud posting 82% growth in Q2 26 while trading at 15x earnings. GOOGL screens cheaper, but AMZN’s forward P/E of 22x against forward EPS of $14.42 looks reasonable versus peers. The comparison makes our $340.96 target look measured.
Company P/E Cloud Growth Amazon 21x 37% Microsoft 28x 43% Alphabet 15x 82% Amazon Price Prediction 2026-2030 Our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $340.96 and buy call rest on a simple observation: AWS growth is reaccelerating while advertising throws off high-margin cash.
The setup looks constructive if AWS holds above 35% growth into Q4. The thesis weakens if capex overruns push free cash flow deeper into negative territory into 2027.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $289.24 2027 $340.96 2028 $408.66 2029 $464.79 2030 $546.46 These projections assume Amazon continues executing on the AWS AI buildout and disciplined retail margins. Significant upside or downside could result from AI capex return-on-investment and any material shift in trade policy.
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Amazon is asking some of its third-party sellers to bid for access to one of its fastest shipping options. Watchara Phomicinda/MediaNews Group/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images Amazon is turning to third-party sellers to expand one of its fastest shipping options — and asking them to pay up for it.
The e-commerce giant is asking some sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA, to submit bids to make their products eligible for "sub-Same Day" delivery, according to an email sent to sellers earlier this month.
Sub-Same Day deliveries arrive as soon as two hours after customers place an order and are available in 2,300 metro areas, according to Amazon. Items sold through sub-Same Day delivery "have experienced 12% higher sales on average" than those delivered through regular FBA service, Amazon wrote in the email.
"You pay only for units that actually ship through Sub Same Day, at the per-unit price you bid," the email reads. "Participation is optional, and you're never charged more than the price per unit you set."
The bid system could increase what sellers pay to Amazon, people who advise sellers told Business Insider.
Under FBA, sellers already pay Amazon to store and pack their inventory. Amazon charges some fees on a per-item basis, while others are a percentage of each sale.
"For the first time, sellers can choose which additional products to offer at faster speeds based on their own business expertise and customer insights," a company spokesperson told Business Insider about the bidding system.
Amazon will evaluate bids using factors such as customer feedback, the company said. Items sold by third-party sellers for sub-Same Day delivery span several categories, from groceries to toys.
Amazon "will continue to place a wide variety of products from independent sellers throughout our Same Day network at no additional cost to sellers," the spokesperson added.
An Amazon logistics facility in Utah Charles-McClintock Wilson/NurPhoto via Getty Images Paying to 'keep playing at the highest level'Amazon has expanded the range of products available for delivery in as little as a few hours over the past year. It's also offering 30-minute delivery in some cities for some groceries and other essential products.
To meet those kinds of delivery times, Amazon wants to use inventory stored in its warehouses from third-party sellers, who account for the majority of unit sales on the platform. And it's not afraid to make sellers compete against each other.
"Amazon will prioritize in search results — or even in Alexa results —whatever gets there faster," Vanessa Hung, CEO of Online Seller Solutions, an agency that advises Amazon sellers.
"If you want to keep playing at the highest level, you need to bid for that and pay more," she added.
FBA is still "a good deal" for fast shipping even with the change, said Scott Needham, who has sold on Amazon for 13 years and is the CEO and founder of SmartScout, which provides market intelligence about Amazon to sellers.
Amazon's introduction of a bid system makes using FBA more complicated for sellers, who now have to calculate a winning offer to ship more of their inventory with the fastest shipping option, he said.
"I would rather that they just have an elevated cost" for sub-Same Day shipping and invite sellers to participate instead of using an option, Needham said.
That way, he said, "there's no game theory."
An Amazon fulfillment center near London JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images For some sellers, 'this is another fee'Sellers are likely to spend more on sub-Same Day delivery even without the bidding system, Hung said.
To meet faster shipping deadlines, sellers have to warehouse their products closer to customers — a move that usually means buying more inventory and keeping it in more Amazon facilities.
"Before, the same warehouse could serve Raleigh and Charlotte," Hung said. "Now, you need to have inventory in Raleigh and in Charlotte in order to have the 30-minute delivery window."
Amazon says that its sub-Same Day facilities stock about 100,000 products — a fraction of the millions found at the company's traditional fulfillment centers.
Third-party sellers have pointed to the rising costs of selling on Amazon over the last few years.
In April, some sellers staged a one-day Amazon ads boycott after the company began deducting ad costs directly from sales proceeds instead of letting them pay by credit card.
Some sellers are trying to increase sales on other platforms, such as TikTok Shop, where selling costs are lower, Hung said.
For anyone who wants to access the high sales volumes that Amazon provides, though, Amazon's request for bids is a new hurdle, she said.
"I roll my eyes, and I'm like, okay, this is another fee," Hung said.
Do you have a story idea about Amazon's shipping or third-party sellers? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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Alex Bitter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.
Amazon Shipping E-Commerce More Retail Logistics Exclusive
Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 13.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 517,750 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after buying an additional 62,417 shares during the period. Amazon.com comprises 0.6% of Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $123,380,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC lifted its stake in Amazon.com by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 73,085 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $15,221,000 after acquiring an additional 5,125 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 303,862 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $63,285,000 after acquiring an additional 5,104 shares in the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $49,997,000 after purchasing an additional 4,854 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 21.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,653,228 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $5,690,463,000 after purchasing an additional 4,275,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% in the first quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 147,461 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $30,712,000 after purchasing an additional 2,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth AMZN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho set a $330.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 target price on Amazon.com and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.09.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Amazon.com Amazon.com Price Performance Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $266.43 on Friday. Amazon.com, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.00 and a twelve month high of $287.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $240.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.45.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.
Key Stories Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Evercore raises target on agentic AI potential. Evercore ISI lifted its AMZN price target to $355 from $315.16 and maintained an Outperform rating. The firm believes agentic AI could improve retail growth and strengthen trends across Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising and e-commerce. Why is Amazon stock surging 4% today Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AI demand. Amazon plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers in 2027–2028, bringing its announced commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The spending signals strong expected demand for AWS AI capacity and helped distinguish Amazon positively within the AI infrastructure sector. Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over surging demand Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI economics remain major growth catalysts. Reports cited approximately 37% AWS revenue growth to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, while Amazon’s AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion. Analysts also highlighted solid retail profitability and long-term cloud adoption. Amazon Stock: AI Investment Gains Momentum as AWS Revenue Surges Positive Sentiment: New distribution and energy initiatives support the platform. Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by year-end, while new power-purchase agreements add 600 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and support data-center expansion. Amazon is about to six times its drone delivery footprint Neutral Sentiment: Amazon-backed Zoox is launching robotaxi service in San Francisco, creating a potential long-term growth option but adding an unproven business with significant execution requirements. Amazon-backed Zoox launches robotaxis in San Francisco Negative Sentiment: AI spending is raising return-on-investment concerns. The enlarged GPU commitment adds to an already substantial capital budget, prompting investors to question whether AWS demand and AI monetization will justify the cost. Amazon’s post-earnings gains have also partially faded, and billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft. Negative Sentiment: California litigation over alleged price-fixing remains an overhang, although a judge indicated the state’s request to block Amazon’s practices would likely be denied. Judge likely to deny California’s bid to stop Amazon’s alleged price fixing Insider Buying and Selling In other news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,258 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.77, for a total value of $2,404,950.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,699,926.30. This represents a 18.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $5,180,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,235,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $579,085,751.66. This trade represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,580,205 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Company Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
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Amazon (AMZN +3.97%) is running the largest capital-spending program in its history. The company expects about $220 billion in capital expenditures this year, an estimate CEO Andy Jassy raised from $200 billion in July.
And the spending runs well past this year. On Aug. 26, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Nvidia announced plans to put 2 million more Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) into AWS's infrastructure in 2027 and 2028, adding to plans to put more than 1 million GPUs in place starting in 2026, announced earlier this year.
So what has spending on this scale historically meant for the stock? Amazon has been here before, and the record is specific. In the past 15 years, the stock's two worst years were also years its bottom line went negative in the middle of a heavy investment stretch, and both were followed by enormous rebounds.
But the record holds exactly two instances. And the spending, on its own, was never what did the damage.
Image source: Getty Images.
The two bad yearsIn 2014, Amazon's capital expenditures reached $4.9 billion, up 42% year over year and about five times what the company spent in 2010. Sales still grew 20% to $89 billion. But operating income shrank to $178 million, and the company posted a net loss of $241 million. The stock fell 22% that year.
Then came 2015. Operating income rebounded more than tenfold to $2.2 billion, the company swung back to a profit, and the stock rose 118% -- its best year of the past 15.
The 2022 episode was bigger in every direction. Capital expenditures hit a then-record $58.3 billion, and even with revenue up 9% year over year, Amazon reported a $2.7 billion annual net loss. Operating income halved to $12.2 billion that year, and a $12.7 billion pre-tax valuation loss on the company's investment in Rivian Automotive dragged the bottom line into the red. The stock lost about half its value.
A year later, in 2023, net income came in at $30.4 billion, and the shares rebounded 81%.
Spending alone was never the signalAmazon's other heavy spending years (2021, 2024, and 2025) saw capital expenditures of $55.4 billion, $77.7 billion, and $128.3 billion. The stock's returns in those years: up 2%, up 44%, and up 5%. Uninspiring in two cases, but nothing like 2014 or 2022.
Notably, even a loss year wasn't automatically fatal. In 2012, Amazon reported a small net loss of $39 million while investing heavily, and the stock rose 45% anyway.
What set 2014 and 2022 apart is that the income statement stopped keeping up. Operating profit nearly disappeared in 2014 as the spending rose. In 2022, operating income halved while the Rivian write-down pushed the bottom line negative. When investors could still see earnings growing through a build-out, they kept paying for the build-out.
Which setup is 2026?On the cash-flow statement, today looks like the bad years. Amazon's trailing-12-month purchases of property and equipment, net of proceeds, have reached $169 billion -- up $66.1 billion from a year earlier, an increase the company attributes primarily to artificial intelligence (AI).
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Free cash flow has flipped negative: an outflow of $7.6 billion over the trailing 12 months, against an inflow of $18.2 billion the year before. That capital spending now runs at about 22% of trailing revenue, arguably a heavier weight than the company carried through 2014 or 2022.
On the income statement, however, today looks nothing like them. Operating income rose 43% year over year to $27.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026. AWS revenue grew 37% year over year last quarter, its fastest pace since 2021, after accelerating through the first half of the year. The profit erosion that marked both bad years is, so far, absent. Of course, that could change -- depreciation from the build-out may weigh on margins in the quarters ahead.
So, does the market pay for a build-out while it's happening, or only after it stops? Amazon's history answers both ways. It has paid right through the biggest spending years, whenever profits kept growing underneath them. It punished the two years profits vanished, then handed the stock two of its best years once they returned. So far, the market is paying right through this one: shares trade near $266 as of this writing, up about 15% in 2026.
In short, the number to watch from here isn't the size of the capital budget. It's whether operating income keeps climbing while the budget runs. I'd start worrying if that growth stalls. But two instances of history say the spending alone isn't a reason to sell, and I think they have it right.
Greenleaf Trust trimmed its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 461,920 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 4,126 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up approximately 1.1% of Greenleaf Trust’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Greenleaf Trust’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $110,094,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Amazon.com by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 73,085 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $15,221,000 after purchasing an additional 5,125 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. grew its stake in Amazon.com by 1.7% during the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 303,862 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $63,285,000 after buying an additional 5,104 shares during the last quarter. Narwhal Capital Management grew its stake in Amazon.com by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 216,606 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $49,997,000 after buying an additional 4,854 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,653,228 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $5,690,463,000 after buying an additional 4,275,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% during the first quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 147,461 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $30,712,000 after buying an additional 2,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Trading Up 4.0% Shares of AMZN opened at $266.43 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 12-month low of $196.00 and a 12-month high of $287.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.45. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $240.45.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The firm had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company’s revenue was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year. Insider Buying and Selling In other Amazon.com news, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 14,541 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.06, for a total value of $3,766,991.46. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 17,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,609,713.64. This trade represents a 44.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 6,362 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $1,647,821.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 476,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $123,465,145.81. This represents a 1.32% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,580,205. 8.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Evercore raises target on agentic AI potential. Evercore ISI lifted its AMZN price target to $355 from $315.16 and maintained an Outperform rating. The firm believes agentic AI could improve retail growth and strengthen trends across Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising and e-commerce. Why is Amazon stock surging 4% today Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AI demand. Amazon plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers in 2027–2028, bringing its announced commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The spending signals strong expected demand for AWS AI capacity and helped distinguish Amazon positively within the AI infrastructure sector. Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over surging demand Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI economics remain major growth catalysts. Reports cited approximately 37% AWS revenue growth to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, while Amazon’s AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion. Analysts also highlighted solid retail profitability and long-term cloud adoption. Amazon Stock: AI Investment Gains Momentum as AWS Revenue Surges Positive Sentiment: New distribution and energy initiatives support the platform. Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by year-end, while new power-purchase agreements add 600 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and support data-center expansion. Amazon is about to six times its drone delivery footprint Neutral Sentiment: Amazon-backed Zoox is launching robotaxi service in San Francisco, creating a potential long-term growth option but adding an unproven business with significant execution requirements. Amazon-backed Zoox launches robotaxis in San Francisco Negative Sentiment: AI spending is raising return-on-investment concerns. The enlarged GPU commitment adds to an already substantial capital budget, prompting investors to question whether AWS demand and AI monetization will justify the cost. Amazon’s post-earnings gains have also partially faded, and billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft. Negative Sentiment: California litigation over alleged price-fixing remains an overhang, although a judge indicated the state’s request to block Amazon’s practices would likely be denied. Judge likely to deny California’s bid to stop Amazon’s alleged price fixing Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several brokerages have recently commented on AMZN. Rosenblatt Securities initiated coverage on Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (down from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $390.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 target price (up from $340.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.09.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on AMZN
About Amazon.com (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
Recommended Stories Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com From SaaS-pocalypse to Perfect Storm: Workday’s AI Growth Story Strengthens These 3 GARP Stocks Show Why Growth and Value Do Not Have to Clash Venture Into High-Volatility Corners of the Market With These 3 ETFs 3 Retail Stocks to Watch After a Big Consumer Earnings Week Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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Cordoba Advisory Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 206.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,625 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,444 shares during the period. Cordoba Advisory Partners LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $864,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. MilWealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 79.0% in the 4th quarter. MilWealth Group LLC now owns 179 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the fourth quarter valued at about $45,000. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Amazon.com by 900.0% during the fourth quarter. Elkhorn Partners Limited Partnership now owns 200 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC grew its position in Amazon.com by 95.6% in the 4th quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC now owns 221 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Amazon.com by 87.7% in the 4th quarter. Prudent Man Investment Management Inc. now owns 229 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Stock Performance Shares of AMZN opened at $266.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a PE ratio of 21.43, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $251.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $240.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.00 and a 1 year high of $287.20.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year. Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com In other Amazon.com news, VP Shelley Reynolds sold 2,343 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $606,860.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 119,780 shares in the company, valued at $31,024,217.80. This trade represents a 1.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,258 shares of Amazon.com stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.77, for a total transaction of $2,404,950.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,699,926.30. The trade was a 18.35% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 71,589 shares of company stock valued at $18,580,205. Insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMZN. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 target price (up from $340.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Bank of America increased their price target on Amazon.com from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. BNP Paribas Exane lifted their price target on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on Amazon.com from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities initiated coverage on Amazon.com in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.09.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on AMZN
Amazon.com News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Evercore raises target on agentic AI potential. Evercore ISI lifted its AMZN price target to $355 from $315.16 and maintained an Outperform rating. The firm believes agentic AI could improve retail growth and strengthen trends across Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising and e-commerce. Why is Amazon stock surging 4% today Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AI demand. Amazon plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers in 2027–2028, bringing its announced commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The spending signals strong expected demand for AWS AI capacity and helped distinguish Amazon positively within the AI infrastructure sector. Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over surging demand Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI economics remain major growth catalysts. Reports cited approximately 37% AWS revenue growth to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, while Amazon’s AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion. Analysts also highlighted solid retail profitability and long-term cloud adoption. Amazon Stock: AI Investment Gains Momentum as AWS Revenue Surges Positive Sentiment: New distribution and energy initiatives support the platform. Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by year-end, while new power-purchase agreements add 600 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and support data-center expansion. Amazon is about to six times its drone delivery footprint Neutral Sentiment: Amazon-backed Zoox is launching robotaxi service in San Francisco, creating a potential long-term growth option but adding an unproven business with significant execution requirements. Amazon-backed Zoox launches robotaxis in San Francisco Negative Sentiment: AI spending is raising return-on-investment concerns. The enlarged GPU commitment adds to an already substantial capital budget, prompting investors to question whether AWS demand and AI monetization will justify the cost. Amazon’s post-earnings gains have also partially faded, and billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft. Negative Sentiment: California litigation over alleged price-fixing remains an overhang, although a judge indicated the state’s request to block Amazon’s practices would likely be denied. Judge likely to deny California’s bid to stop Amazon’s alleged price fixing Amazon.com Company Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
Recommended Stories Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com From SaaS-pocalypse to Perfect Storm: Workday’s AI Growth Story Strengthens These 3 GARP Stocks Show Why Growth and Value Do Not Have to Clash Venture Into High-Volatility Corners of the Market With These 3 ETFs 3 Retail Stocks to Watch After a Big Consumer Earnings Week
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Columbia Asset Management lowered its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 4.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 80,573 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 3,916 shares during the period. Amazon.com makes up approximately 3.3% of Columbia Asset Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Columbia Asset Management’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $19,204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 832,274,556 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $158,348,557,000 after purchasing an additional 8,913,959 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 388,653,121 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $89,708,913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,971,680 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 225,120,994 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $51,753,622,000 after purchasing an additional 2,479,324 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,868,735,000. Finally, Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $2,272,397,000 after purchasing an additional 98,090,585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Stock Performance NASDAQ AMZN opened at $266.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.87 trillion, a P/E ratio of 21.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $287.20. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $251.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $240.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The business had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year. Insider Activity at Amazon.com In related news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $5,180,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,235,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $579,085,751.66. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Matthew S. Garman sold 14,541 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.06, for a total transaction of $3,766,991.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 17,794 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,609,713.64. The trade was a 44.97% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 71,589 shares of company stock worth $18,580,205 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes Several equities analysts recently commented on AMZN shares. Pivotal Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $333.00 target price (up from $320.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial raised their target price on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $365.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $293.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.09.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on AMZN
Amazon.com News Roundup Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: Evercore raises target on agentic AI potential. Evercore ISI lifted its AMZN price target to $355 from $315.16 and maintained an Outperform rating. The firm believes agentic AI could improve retail growth and strengthen trends across Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising and e-commerce. Why is Amazon stock surging 4% today Positive Sentiment: Expanded Nvidia partnership reinforces AI demand. Amazon plans to add 2 million Nvidia GPUs to its data centers in 2027–2028, bringing its announced commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The spending signals strong expected demand for AWS AI capacity and helped distinguish Amazon positively within the AI infrastructure sector. Amazon just tripled its order of Nvidia chips over surging demand Positive Sentiment: AWS and AI economics remain major growth catalysts. Reports cited approximately 37% AWS revenue growth to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, while Amazon’s AI and chip businesses each reached annualized revenue run rates above $25 billion. Analysts also highlighted solid retail profitability and long-term cloud adoption. Amazon Stock: AI Investment Gains Momentum as AWS Revenue Surges Positive Sentiment: New distribution and energy initiatives support the platform. Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by year-end, while new power-purchase agreements add 600 megawatts of carbon-free electricity and support data-center expansion. Amazon is about to six times its drone delivery footprint Neutral Sentiment: Amazon-backed Zoox is launching robotaxi service in San Francisco, creating a potential long-term growth option but adding an unproven business with significant execution requirements. Amazon-backed Zoox launches robotaxis in San Francisco Negative Sentiment: AI spending is raising return-on-investment concerns. The enlarged GPU commitment adds to an already substantial capital budget, prompting investors to question whether AWS demand and AI monetization will justify the cost. Amazon’s post-earnings gains have also partially faded, and billionaire Bill Ackman reportedly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft. Negative Sentiment: California litigation over alleged price-fixing remains an overhang, although a judge indicated the state’s request to block Amazon’s practices would likely be denied. Judge likely to deny California’s bid to stop Amazon’s alleged price fixing Amazon.com Company Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com From SaaS-pocalypse to Perfect Storm: Workday’s AI Growth Story Strengthens These 3 GARP Stocks Show Why Growth and Value Do Not Have to Clash Venture Into High-Volatility Corners of the Market With These 3 ETFs 3 Retail Stocks to Watch After a Big Consumer Earnings Week Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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There are multiple reasons to buy Amazon (AMZN +3.97%) stock, but I think I've identified the single reason why Amazon is one of the best stocks to buy now. It all comes down to how rapidly its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division is growing, and the effect that it has on the overall business.
Most investors underestimate the effect AWS' soaring growth has on the company, but I think it makes for a top reason why Amazon will crush the market over the next few years.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
AWS' operating margin is a huge boost for Amazon Most people think of Amazon's e-commerce business when they think about the company. That makes sense, since that's the most public-facing part of the business. But when you examine the financials, it's really not that great of a business to be in. Commerce is a notoriously hard industry due to razor-thin margins.
Amazon's North American commerce division generated $116 billion in revenue during the second quarter, but only produced $9.1 billion in operating income. That's a 7.8% margin, which may be good for commerce, but it's nothing compared to Amazon's cloud computing division.
During Q2, AWS' operating margin was an impressive 39%. So, for each dollar that comes in through each of these businesses, AWS makes about 5 times more profit. In fact, 60% of Amazon's operating income came from AWS in Q2. AWS is clearly the most important part of its business, and with revenue growth rapidly accelerating, it looks like a phenomenal investment to make now.
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In Q2, AWS' revenue increased by 37% year over year. That's likely to continue, as Amazon has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into building out new data centers for increased computing capacity. As those come online, expect AWS' revenue to jump, bringing Amazon's operating profits along with it. Because AWS is a smaller part of Amazon's overall business, Amazon will grow its operating profits at a faster pace than revenue, making it a hidden way Amazon will outperform the market moving forward.
I think there's a strong chance that Amazon will be one of the top-performing stocks over the next five years as more computing capacity comes online and AWS usage explodes higher. Now is the perfect time to scoop up shares, as most of the market is unaware of what's coming down the pipeline for Amazon's stock.
Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape in the technology sector. So, as Tim Cook gets set to retire from the CEO spot at Apple (AAPL +1.63%) on Sept. 1, investors should probably anticipate some change. But will the stock's performance follow the trend set by Amazon (AMZN +3.97%), which has underperformed since Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO?
Image source: Apple.
What happened to Amazon? Jeff Bezos helped turn Amazon into an industry-leading technology company, taking it from an e-commerce disruptor selling books to a diversified technology services company. There's no question that he was an important figure at the company. However, he stepped down as CEO in mid-2021. Since that point, Amazon's stock has been a laggard.
As the chart below highlights, Amazon's roughly 50% price advance is well behind the over 100% gain of the Nasdaq-100 and the roughly 90% rise in the S&P 500 index (^GSPC -0.25%), as of this writing. To be fair, Bezos was at the helm while the company was still a relatively small business, so growth was much easier to achieve. Today, Amazon is a $2.8 trillion market cap technology giant. It is much harder to grow a large business, as it often requires massive capital investments.
AMZN Total Return Level data by YCharts
That, of course, is showing up in the artificial intelligence (AI) spending underway today. AI really only started to take off after Bezos stepped aside. Although there is massive spending across the industry, Amazon alone is expected to invest $220 billion in 2026. While the now-giant Amazon hasn't kept up with the broader market, it has continued to cement its position as an industry leader. This dynamic is important to keep in mind as you consider Tim Cook's departure from Apple.
Tim Cook is stepping aside as the AI race heats up Could Apple underperform after Tim Cook leaves? Yes, and the timing of his exit is important because it coincides with the world's big AI technology transition. Under Cook, Apple hasn't taken as aggressive a stance in the AI race, focusing on using AI to enhance its products rather than trying to be a hyperscaler like Amazon, which is building massive AI data centers. That's the path he's laid out for his successor, but it is too early to know if it is a good or bad direction.
The benefit for Apple is that it isn't spending as heavily on AI infrastructure as its technology competitors. The risk is that Apple ends up left behind in a fast-developing market. Right now, given that Apple's stock is trading within 10% of its all-time high, it seems like investors like the plan. Indeed, there is increasing concern about the amount of money being spent on AI infrastructure by companies like Amazon. But investor enthusiasm for Apple's approach could quickly shift in a highly competitive industry as the AI space continues to evolve.
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There is always uncertainty, and each company charts the course it thinks best. But even the best-laid plans sometimes fall short. It is almost a certainty that Apple will eventually go from industry leader to industry laggard at some point in the future. It has happened before. Whether that occurs after Cook leaves is hard to say, but it is possible. And it will likely depend heavily on the AI decisions currently being made.
Focus on the big picture, not the CEO Good companies adjust to market conditions, as Apple has many times in the past. So, too, has Amazon. Moreover, a CEO doesn't operate in a vacuum; they have a team behind them. So Apple's differentiated approach to AI isn't of Cook's sole design. In other words, don't expect a dramatic change in the company's business direction until it is clearly out of step with AI's trajectory or with shifts in consumer demand. That's the real takeaway.
The company has made a strategic bet. Whether or not Apple leads or lags the market will likely depend on how well that bet plays out. Cook stepping down as CEO isn't really going to be the biggest deciding factor in the outcome, even though he was at the head of the company when the path was laid out. But even if the company does fall behind, it is likely to adjust, as it has before.
Dan Ives went on live TV and named six AI stocks he says will lead the next leg up. Every single one was already sitting inside a fund that bears his name, and the morning broadcast did not mention it.
On CNBC’s Morning Call Sheet on August 27, 2026, longtime tech analyst Dan Ives told viewers where the next dollars flow after NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) reignited the AI rally. His answer: hyperscalers Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, along with software names including Palantir and cybersecurity name CrowdStrike. Ives argued demand is accelerating 20% even in the last three months and told the audience “the AI party goes to 4 a.m.”
Here is the wrinkle. The exchange-traded fund that carries Ives’s name, the Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (NASDAQ:IVES), already held every one of those stocks as of its most recent portfolio filing. The snapshot is dated April 30, 2026, filed under accession 0000940400-26-025062, and it lists 31 positions totalling roughly $996.99 million in net assets. The fund’s fact sheet, hosted by Wedbush Funds and dated May 25, 2026, shows a 0.75% net expense ratio.
Analysts talking about names they own is common practice, and disclosure is the norm. The public clip we have from this morning does not include an on-air disclosure that the IVES ETF holds these stocks, and the CNBC chyron identifies Ives as “dan ives of yorkville ives”, reflecting his move to a new venture after his July 1, 2026 departure from Wedbush reported by Seeking Alpha. The ETF’s fund family remains Wedbush.
What the IVES ETF Actually Held on April 30 Every stock Ives named on CNBC this morning appears in the April 30 filing. Position weights and share counts are shown exactly as reported.
Ticker Issuer Weight Shares Value (USD) AMZN Amazon.com 5.421329195337 203,916 54,049,974.96 GOOGL Alphabet 5.37931665699 139,374 53,631,115.20 NVDA NVIDIA 4.841024330805 241,842 48,264,407.94 MSFT Microsoft 4.439622327332 108,545 44,262,480.10 PLTR Palantir 3.226025033766 231,206 32,163,066.66 CRWD CrowdStrike 2.672834536993 59,782 26,647,826.50 These are point-in-time disclosures. Fund holdings shift, and the April 30 snapshot may not reflect current positions. The fact sheet, dated a few weeks later, listed Tesla as the largest position at 5.34% and Alibaba at 4.53%, with Alphabet at 4.62%, Apple at 4.62%, NVIDIA at 4.54% and Microsoft at 4.32%.
Names Ives Called Out, and What They Look Like Right Now Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported Q4 FY26 revenue of Microsoft Cloud at $59.3 billion, up 27%, with Azure surpassing $100 billion, up 41%. Satya Nadella said “demand continues to exceed available supply.” The stock trades near $499.04 and is up 3.29% YTD through August 26.
Alphabet (GOOGL) has been the more dramatic mover, up 65.58% over the past year and 9.41% YTD. Google Cloud grew 82% to $24.77B in the latest quarter, and Alphabet trades at a forward P/E in the mid-teens, cheaper than the rest of the AI-hyperscaler cohort.
Amazon (AMZN) delivered AWS revenue growth of 36.7% year-over-year, described on the call as its fastest growth in 18 quarters, with an AWS backlog of $496 billion. Andy Jassy told analysts AWS could become “a trillion dollar annual revenue business for us in time.”
Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) is the most expensive stock in the group, carrying a trailing P/E of 146 and a price-to-sales ratio of 69. The Q2 earnings report showed U.S. commercial revenue growth of 149% year-over-year and full-year guidance raised to $8.15 to $8.158 billion. Analyst consensus target sits at $191.68, with 1 strong buy, 19 buy, 10 hold, 1 sell and 1 strong sell.
CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) is the wrinkle. The company reported Q2 net new ARR of $333 million, accelerating to 51% year-over-year growth and raised FY27 net new ARR guidance to $1.350 to $1.359 billion. Yet the stock closed at $189.18 on August 26, 2026, down 6.17% over the prior week, and reported earnings that same evening. Consensus target: $210.53, with 10 strong buy, 31 buy, 11 hold and 1 strong sell ratings.
Has the Fund Actually Earned Its Fee? IVES is up 20.59% year to date through August 26, well ahead of the Nasdaq 100 ETF QQQ at 15.8% YTD and even ahead of NVIDIA itself at 12.55% YTD. Over one year the fund is up 37.73%. The 0.75% expense ratio is high compared to broad-market index products, but the fund has delivered relative outperformance so far.
The concentration works both ways. AI beneficiaries beyond the six Ives named on CNBC dominate the portfolio: AMD is the largest holding at 6.33%, Broadcom is at 5.44%, and Taiwan Semiconductor is at 4.95%. Names like CoreWeave, Nebius, IREN and Oklo add exposure to neocloud and AI-power themes. That is the part of the AI trade most retail viewers overlook, and we profiled seven of these suppliers (power, cooling, networking) in a free report on the AI boom beyond the chipmakers.
What Retail Viewers Should Take Away The information gap is the real story. A retail viewer watching this morning heard a well-known analyst name six stocks. That same viewer may not know a low-cost index alternative like QQQ exists, or that a fund carrying Ives’s name already owned every one of those names, at a 0.75% expense ratio, in a 31-position concentrated portfolio. Whether the pick list works from here depends on NVIDIA’s supply story, hyperscaler capex, and CrowdStrike’s ability to convert its record Q3 pipeline into ARR. Ives himself said on air that demand is accelerating 20% even in the last three months. Jensen Huang, on his own call the night before, said NVIDIA expects to grow revenue by approximately 70% in fiscal 2028, a supply-constrained outlook.
Two independent signals worth watching next: whether CNBC or Ives publishes a disclosure covering the IVES ETF’s holdings on future segments, and whether the fund’s next portfolio filing shows additions or trims to the six names highlighted on air.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
AWS is turning one million planned Nvidia processors into a fleet expansion exceeding three million. Summary
Federal workloads represent 5% of the additional GPU deployment.
Amazon.com AMZN, the e-commerce and cloud-infrastructure giant, expanded its Nvidia commitment beyond three million GPUs—but Wall Street still hit the brakes. Shares fell approximately 1.4% to $256.84 Thursday morning, based on the updated price shown in the chart and live market data. The message was sharp: investors see the AI opportunity, but they also see the enormous check Amazon must write to capture it.
AWS plans to deploy two million additional Blackwell Ultra, Rubin and Rubin Ultra GPUs during 2027 and 2028, on top of more than one million processors arriving from 2026. Another 100,000 GPUs will support secure federal workloads, while Nvidia's Vera processors and memory technology will move deeper into AWS infrastructure. Amazon is not testing AI demand anymore. It is building for demand at industrial scale.
The chart puts that ambition into valuation context. Amazon's $256.84 share price stands 4.17% above its $246.57 GF Value estimate, leaving less room for execution stumbles as capital spending accelerates. Reuters reported that Nvidia expects 70% revenue growth next fiscal year, strengthening the demand case. Now Amazon must keep those GPUs busy enough to outrun depreciation, electricity costs and the risk of expensive capacity sitting idle.
Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock fell nearly 2% Thursday as the stock lagged both the broader market and its sector despite bullish analyst views on Amazon Web Services and AI-driven cloud demand.
• Amazon.com shares are experiencing downward pressure. Why is AMZN stock retreating?
Rosenblatt Sees AWS Growth Outpacing ExpectationsRosenblatt analyst Scott Devitt initiated coverage of Amazon with a Buy rating and a $335 price target, arguing that investors undervalue the company’s AI opportunity.
Devitt expects AWS growth to reach 45% by the end of 2026, above the Street’s 38% estimate. He also projects AWS annual revenue will exceed $335 billion by 2028.
Citizens Says AI Demand Supports Cloud GrowthCitizens analyst Andrew Boone reiterated a Market Outperform rating and a $315 price target, pointing to strong growth at OpenAI and Anthropic as a positive indicator for AWS.
Boone expects rising AI usage to support cloud infrastructure demand and believes hyperscalers are unlikely to face significant excess server capacity.
Amazon shares remained under pressure even as the Nasdaq gained 1.01% and the S&P 500 rose 0.59%. Consumer Discretionary fell 0.7%, but Amazon still underperformed the sector.
Top ETF Exposure Franklin Focused Dynamic Growth ETF (NASDAQ:FFOG): 9.86% Weight Direxion Daily Magnificent 7 Bull 2X ETF (NYSE:QQQU): 9.80% Weight Argent Large Cap ETF (NASDAQ:ABIG): 9.20% Weight Significance: Because Amazon carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely trigger automatic buying or selling of the stock.
AMZN Price ActionAMZN Stock Price Activity: Amazon.com shares were down 1.58% at $256.18 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Peter Thiel gained early fame for being a co-founder of PayPal alongside Elon Musk. After selling that company to eBay, Thiel used his newfound fortune to become a venture capitalist. One of his earliest multibaggers came from investing in Facebook (now Meta Platforms) in 2004. Thiel later co-founded Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm that has become a cornerstone of government and enterprise intelligence work.
Today, the serial entrepreneur manages capital through a hedge fund called Thiel Macro. According to the fund's latest 13F disclosure, in the second quarter, it opened a new stake in Amazon (AMZN +3.97%) -- acquiring 495,000 shares valued at roughly $118 million. This represents about 28% of the hedge fund's portfolio. This suggests that despite the stock already having a generational rise behind it -- with a 347,260% return since its IPO in 1997 -- Thiel still sees upside in Amazon.
That purchase raises an interesting question, though. Why would a contrarian thinker who is famous for seeking out monopolies suddenly invest in a company that faces intense competition on every front?
Image source: Amazon.
Thiel has a preference for monopolies, but Amazon faces stiff competition Thiel has long argued that "competition is for losers." In his view, lasting value accrues to companies that can escape competition and establish durable monopolies through proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, or brand moats. Amazon fails this test across all of its major businesses.
In e-commerce, the company competes with Walmart's massive physical and expanding digital footprint in the United States, among other rivals. Meanwhile, Amazon remains virtually absent from the Chinese market, which is primarily dominated by local players. In cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) still leads in market share, but it is contending daily with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, both of which are gaining ground.
The digital advertising space pits Amazon against the entrenched duopoly of Meta and Alphabet, while its Prime streaming service faces Netflix, Disney, and a crowded field of ancillary providers. Far from enjoying monopoly rents, Amazon operates in saturated markets where customers can switch providers, and rivals can undercut it on pricing at the flip of a switch.
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What might Thiel see in Amazon? Given that Amazon is not a monopoly and its aggressive capital spending on artificial intelligence (AI) has driven free cash flow into the negative, what might appeal to him about the tech giant as an investment is not immediately clear. What Thiel might be looking at is Amazon's infrastructure scale, which is giving it a more subtle competitive advantage.
AWS is the world's largest cloud platform and generates the bulk of Amazon's operating profits. After years of uninspiring growth, AWS' revenue gains are accelerating again as generative AI workloads surge. At the same time, AWS is designing a full-stack AI ecosystem featuring its custom Trainium, Inferentia, and Graviton chips, and expanding its suite of managed services. In addition, the company's large equity stake in Anthropic gives Amazon lucrative exposure to one of the world's frontier large language models (LLMs) in a way that doesn't require it to bear the full research risk alone.
It might be that Thiel is betting that Amazon's ability to supply the entire AI stack -- compute, storage, networking, specialized silicon, and model hosting -- will create compounding advantages that pure-play software or chip designers and manufacturers cannot match at scale. When viewed through this lens, the current pressures on its free cash flow can be seen as just the temporary price of locking in this strategic position while demand still exceeds supply.
Is Amazon stock a good buy? Amazon is a tough stock to value. The lumpiness of its e-commerce business, combined with emerging services on so many other fronts, makes the company's net income quite unpredictable. For this reason, I personally do not love using the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio to gauge the value of Amazon stock.
Instead, I prefer to look at the company on an enterprise-value-to-operating cash flow basis. Currently, Amazon's EV-to-OCF of 16.7 is near its lowest level since the start of the AI revolution. It's also notably under Amazon's P/E ratio of 21.
Fundamental Chart data by YCharts.
I see this disparity as quite meaningful for a company whose operating cash flow continues to expand even as its capex intensity accelerates. Against this backdrop, perhaps Thiel sees Amazon as a cheap way to own both the physical and software backbones of the AI boom.
While most investors focus on near-term free cash flow or competitive noise, Thiel appears focused on the multiyear optionality of an integrated ecosystem whose returns will continue materializing once ventures across new data centers and chips are fully utilized.
Amazon could be a reasonable buy for patient and disciplined investors who can tolerate ongoing elevated spending for a few more years. Ultimately, Amazon's combination of relative value and strategic positioning suggests Thiel could be early rather than reckless.
Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Walt Disney, and eBay. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short September 2026 $47.50 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
YouTube announced on Thursday that eligible creators in the U.S. can now tag Amazon products in their content and receive a cut of sales. Creators can link Amazon products in their shorts, long-form videos, and livestreams.
The update turns product recommendations into a more direct revenue stream for creators, and for Amazon, the move puts its massive online marketplace inside one of the most popular video platforms.
Although YouTube already runs a Shopping affiliate program with participating retailers, the addition of Amazon’s vast catalog essentially allows creators to recommend a variety of products through a native integration. By bringing Amazon into the Shopping Affiliate Program, creators no longer need to paste Associates links in the video’s description, then hope viewers copy the link when they make a purchase.
Instead, YouTube says Amazon will provide it with a curated catalog of highly requested and trending products that creators can tag in their videos. If a creator can’t find a specific product that they want to tag, they can request to add it by reaching out to YouTube Support.
The feature also includes auto-tagging support. If enabled, YouTube’s systems can automatically review a creator’s recent uploads to identify and tag eligible Amazon products.
YouTube notes that creators won’t see breakdowns for specific products or individual videos in their analytics, but that they’ll see their overall daily earnings in YouTube Studio. If a viewer ends up returning an item, that commission will be deducted from the creator’s balance.
While only eligible U.S. creators can currently tag Amazon products, those tags can be seen globally. YouTube says it may automatically match a tagged product with a trusted local merchant offer to allow creators to earn commissions on eligible international purchases. If a local merchant isn’t available, the tag will route viewers to the Amazon U.S. website, where commission will be earned if a purchase is finalized on the U.S. site.
To be eligible, creators must be enrolled in YouTube’s Partner and Shopping Affiliate programs, have an active Amazon Influencer or Associates account, and link it to their YouTube channel.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Aisha by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at aisha_malik.01 on Signal.
A California judge on Thursday said he was likely to deny a bid to block Amazon (AMZN.O) from allegedly fixing prices by pressuring rivals to raise prices, in a setback for California Attorney General Rob Bonta's case against the online retailer.
Bonta sued Amazon in 2022, accusing the company of dominating online retail with anticompetitive tactics that raise prices for consumers.
In April, Bonta said his office had uncovered evidence of Amazon getting brands including Levi Strauss (LEVI.N), Allergan and Hanes to prod online rivals such as Walmart (WMT.O) and Target (TGT.N) to raise prices for consumers so it would not be undercut. Bonta asked the judge to block Amazon from illegally fixing prices.
Judge Ethan Schulman in San Francisco Superior Court said at a hearing on Thursday that he had tentatively ruled to deny the request, though a final decision will not come until after the hearing.
Schulman expressed skepticism towards the request, saying the state had relied on evidence from 2023.
A Bonta spokesperson called the ruling disappointing but said his office looks forward to trial. "We continue to believe that Amazon’s ongoing price fixing behavior is harming California consumers," the spokesperson said.
Empirical Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 69.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 121,600 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up 7.9% of Empirical Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Empirical Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $28,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Amazon.com by 9.9% in the second quarter. Hansen & Associates Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,520 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,080,000 after buying an additional 767 shares in the last quarter. GFG Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Amazon.com by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. GFG Capital LLC now owns 40,993 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $9,770,000 after buying an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors grew its stake in Amazon.com by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors now owns 28,576 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $6,811,000 after acquiring an additional 1,793 shares during the last quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Amazon.com by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 7,006 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PCB Capital LLC increased its holdings in Amazon.com by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. PCB Capital LLC now owns 8,018 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Insider Activity In other news, CEO Andrew R. Jassy sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $5,180,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,235,766 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $579,085,751.66. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP David Zapolsky sold 9,258 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.77, for a total transaction of $2,404,950.66. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 41,190 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,699,926.30. The trade was a 18.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 71,589 shares of company stock valued at $18,580,205 in the last three months. Company insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Stock Down 1.5% AMZN stock opened at $256.26 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $251.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $240.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.62, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.45. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.
Trending Headlines about Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: AWS is expanding its AI infrastructure. Amazon and Nvidia announced an expanded collaboration under which AWS plans to deploy an additional 2 million Nvidia GPUs by 2028, bringing the reported total commitment to roughly 3 million chips. The investment supports expected demand for AI cloud capacity and could strengthen AWS’s competitive position. Amazon Nvidia GPU deal Positive Sentiment: Analysts continue to see significant upside. Evercore ISI reiterated a Buy rating, citing improving retail economics and new AI growth opportunities. Citizens maintained an outperform rating and a $315 price target, while other coverage has highlighted AWS momentum, Amazon’s logistics network and a valuation that could support a higher earnings multiple. Evercore Amazon rating Positive Sentiment: Amazon is adding potential sales channels. YouTube now allows eligible U.S. creators to tag Amazon products in Shorts, videos and livestreams while earning commissions, potentially increasing product discovery and conversion. Amazon is also benefiting from the continued expansion of onsite advertising. YouTube Amazon product tagging Neutral Sentiment: AWS’s DuckLabs acquisition could improve analytics capabilities. AWS is acquiring the team behind the open-source DuckDB database, a move aimed at strengthening cloud data and analytics offerings. Financial terms were not disclosed, so the near-term earnings impact is uncertain. Amazon DuckLabs acquisition Negative Sentiment: Capital spending is weighing on free cash flow. Reports indicate that AWS growth is being accompanied by substantial infrastructure purchases, with trailing free cash flow reportedly declining despite higher operating cash flow. Investors may be concerned that planned AI investments will take time to produce sufficient returns. Negative Sentiment: Insider selling adds to investor caution. Six executives reportedly sold more than $15 million of Amazon shares, including a vice president’s sale of approximately $607,000. The transactions were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which limits their significance but may still affect sentiment. Amazon recent news Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several analysts have issued reports on AMZN shares. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Rosenblatt Securities assumed coverage on Amazon.com in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $328.00 target price (up from $322.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Amazon.com from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $322.39.
Read Our Latest Research Report on Amazon.com
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of AMZN 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.
Although Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock has cooled off by more than 9% over the past four weeks after peaking at around $287.20 following a rally fueled by its strong second quarter (Q2) earnings beat, Mark Mahaney, a Wall Street analyst at Evercore ISI, expects a rebound towards a new all-time high (ATH) over the next 12 months.
Mahaney reiterated a ‘Buy’ rating for Amazon stock, according to a note sent to clients that Finbold analyzed on August 28. He raised this firm’s 12-month price target for AMZN to $355 from $315, representing a 12.64% lift.
With AMZN stock trading at $256.26 on Friday, this analyst suggests a potential 38.53% upside over the next 12 months.
“Amazon remains a Top Large Cap Long as survey results point to retail growth opportunities and intact leadership,” Mahaney noted.
Why is Evercore ISI bullish on Amazon stock? This firm’s bullish position for AMZN was based on its 14th Annual U.S. Online Retail survey, which shows Agentic AI (Artificial Intelligence) is additive for Amazon retail.
Specifically, the survey results revealed that 57% of Alexa AI users purchased products they did not know about before. Additionally, the survey showed that while Amazon’s market penetration dipped slightly from 95% to 92%, it still holds a strong lead that is 34 percentage points ahead of Walmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: WMT).
Mahaney also based his bullish thesis on shipping speed adoption re-accelerating, evidenced by regular same-day usage rebounding to 49% and Prime same-day users now outspending non-Prime members by 3.1 times.
Evercore ISI also highlighted that Perishable Checkout is emerging as a real grocery unlock, as about 46% of respondents who saw it added fresh groceries to their Amazon carts. As a result, he maintains that Amazon remains a Top Large Cap Long.
On the cautious side, Mahaney pointed out that Amazon’s leadership position remains intact but did not widen. Furthermore, the company’s penetration fell to 92% from last year’s record 95%.
AMZN price forecast and performance Following Mahaney’s decision to raise AMZN’s price forecast, 40 Wall Street analysts surveyed by TipRanks have set an average 12-month price target of $334.05, signaling a possible 30.36% upside.
Already, Amazon stock has been on a bullish trend year-to-date (YTD). As of press time, AMZN has gained 13.14% YTD, thereby reaching a market capitalization of roughly $2.8 trillion.
AMZN’s YTD chart. Source: Finbold If Amazon continues to record revenue growth for the coming quarters, amid its bullish uptrend, these analysts’ targets could be achieved.
Featured image via Shutterstock
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Amazon is pouring hundreds of billions into AI infrastructure while free cash flow turns negative, yet something unexpected is showing up in its retail data that suggests this spending may be doing far more than powering cloud servers.
The artificial intelligence spending spree has reached a point where investors are right to demand more than promises. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) are committing hundreds of billions of dollars to chips, data centers, networking equipment, and power, creating a massive question around return on investment. The concern is straightforward: Can all that infrastructure eventually generate enough revenue and profit to justify the capital being deployed today?
Amazon is beginning to provide an unusually compelling answer. Its AI spending isn’t merely supporting an existing business. It may be creating entirely new sources of demand.
Amazon’s AI Spending Keeps Getting Bigger Amazon spent $131 billion on capital expenditures in 2025, up from $83 billion in 2024, and initially expected roughly $200 billion of capital expenditures in 2026. Then it raised that figure to approximately $220 billion following its second-quarter results. It could spend as much as $628 billion by 2028.
That spending is already showing up in the cash-flow statement. Amazon generated $161.4 billion in operating cash flow over the 12 months ended June 30, but free cash flow was negative $7.6 billion after capital expenditures.
Granted, that is a legitimate concern. Investors don’t get to spend $220 billion without eventually demanding a return. But Amazon is also generating the revenue growth needed to make the investment case.
Amazon isn't just building infrastructure; it's rewiring consumer behavior to spark demand out of thin air. The AI Infrastructure Is Producing Revenue Second-quarter AWS revenue jumped 37% year-over-year to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in 18 quarters, while AWS operating income increased to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion. Amazon also said its AI and chips businesses each surpassed a $25 billion annual revenue run rate. That’s important because Amazon isn’t simply building data centers and hoping customers arrive later.
CEO Andy Jassy has said much of the company’s 2026 AWS capital spending is already backed by customer commitments, with much of that capacity expected to be monetized in 2027 and 2028.
The infrastructure is therefore becoming a revenue-producing asset rather than just an expense line. And now something even more interesting is happening inside Amazon’s retail operation.
Agentic AI Could Change the Retail Math Evercore ISI just raised its Amazon price target to $355 from $315.16 after its 14th Annual U.S. Online Retail Survey produced what it called the first survey evidence that agentic AI is additive to Amazon’s retail business.
The key figure is remarkable: 57% of Alexa AI users said they purchased a product they previously didn’t know about.
That’s different from AI simply making Amazon’s existing search engine better. Traditional e-commerce largely captures existing purchase intent. A shopper wants something, searches for it, compares options, and buys. Agentic AI can intervene earlier in that process by understanding what a customer needs and introducing products the customer wasn’t actively looking for. That creates new purchase intent.
If 57% of Alexa AI users are discovering products they didn’t previously know existed and then purchasing them, Amazon isn’t merely converting demand more efficiently. It is potentially creating incremental demand.
That’s not just another feature — it’s a new business model.
Key Takeaway In short, investors shouldn’t ignore Amazon’s negative free cash flow. Spending $220 billion in a single year creates real execution and return-on-capital risks.
But the evidence is moving in the right direction. AWS is growing 37%, its AI business has surpassed a $25 billion annual run rate, and agentic AI is beginning to influence what customers buy.
Ultimately, the biggest payoff from Amazon’s AI investment may not come from selling computing power. Instead, it may come from using that computing power to make customers buy things they never intended to purchase.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) shares up 22,760% since 2002’s initial outlier inflow signal.
In this article:AMZN
+3.97%
AMZN is a global technology company, primarily operating online retail shopping services and cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well as being an AI hyperscaler and budding chip builder. The company’s second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings report showed $200.6 billion in revenue (a 20% year-over-year gain) and gains across all lines of business, operating income of $27.5 billion (a 43% rise), and quarterly net sales and operating income guidance of up to $202 billion and $26.5 billion, respectively.
No wonder AMZN shares are up 22% in the last six months, and they could rise more. MoneyFlows data shows how Big Money investors are betting heavily on the stock.
Institutions Backing Amazon Institutional volumes reveal plenty. In the last year, AMZN has enjoyed strong investor demand, which we believe to be institutional support.
Each green bar signals unusually large volumes in AMZN shares. They reflect our proprietary inflow signal, pushing the stock higher:
Since its February lows, AMZN shares are up 22% thanks to flurries of institutional inflows. Source: www.moneyflows.com Plenty of staples names are under accumulation right now. But there’s a powerful fundamental story happening with Amazon.
Amazon Fundamental Analysis Institutional support and a healthy fundamental backdrop make this company worth investigating. As you can see, AMZN has had strong sales and earnings growth:
Also, the forward price-earnings ratio is just 20.3x right now, indicating the shares are inexpensive relative to earnings.
Now it makes sense why the stock has been generating Big Money interest. AMZN has a track record of strong financial performance.
Marrying great fundamentals with MoneyFlows software has found some big winning stocks over the long term.
Amazon has been a top-rated stock at MoneyFlows for years. That means the stock has unusual buy pressure and growing fundamentals. We have a ranking process that showcases stocks like this on a weekly basis.
It’s had 64 Big Money outlier inflow signals since 2002 and is up 22,760% in that time. The blue bar below shows when AMZN was a top pick in the last decade…institutional support pushes share prices higher:
AMZN shares have been an institutional favorite for years, gaining 465% since the outlier inflow on April 4, 2017. Source: www.moneyflows.com Tracking unusual volumes reveals the power of money flows.
This is a trait that most outlier stocks exhibit…the best of the best. Big Money demand drives stocks upward.
Amazon Price Prediction The AMZN action isn’t new at all. Big Money buying in the shares is signaling to take notice. Given the historical gains in share price and strong fundamentals, this stock could be worth a spot in a diversified portfolio.
Disclosure: the author owns AMZN in personal or managed accounts at the time of publication.
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Buy AMZN. The catalyst is not just a higher target: Evercore’s survey data shows agentic Alexa is driving incremental purchases (57% of Alexa users bought something they didn’t know about), same-day delivery usage is recovering (49%), and Prime customers spend far more (3.1x). Pair that with AWS momentum (60% of operating income; 64% YoY operating income growth) and the Sweden power buildout that de-risks AI data-center capacity. Thesis: AI-driven retail + AWS growth + supply expansion keeps earnings compounding and justifies a higher multiple.
Key Risk: AWS growth or AI infrastructure demand disappoints, causing the multiple expansion to reverse.
AMZN vs MSFT
Buy AMZN and sell MSFT (relative value). The article flags AMZN as attractive versus Microsoft when you adjust for growth, with AWS still the dominant earnings engine. If the market is repricing AI retail/agentic commerce and AWS capacity constraints are easing, AMZN should rerate faster than MSFT, which is more exposed to slower cloud re-acceleration and broader enterprise spending cycles.
Key Risk: Microsoft’s cloud/AI results re-accelerate enough to pull the relative valuation back in its favor.
Amazon shares AMZN surged 4% on Friday after Evercore ISI raised its price target on the e-commerce and cloud computing giant to $355 from $315.16, while maintaining an Outperform rating.
The move came as analysts pointed to improving trends across Amazon’s retail, artificial intelligence and cloud businesses.
Evercore ISI based its revised target partly on findings from its 14th Annual US Online Retail survey.
The survey found that 57% of Alexa AI users had purchased a product they were previously unaware of, providing what the firm described as evidence that agentic AI could add to Amazon’s retail business.
Amazon maintained a 92% penetration rate in the survey, down from last year’s record 95% but still 34 percentage points ahead of Walmart. Same-day delivery usage also recovered to 49%.
Prime customers using same-day delivery spent 3.1 times more than non-Prime members, marking the widest gap recorded in the survey.
Meanwhile, about 46% of respondents who had seen Amazon’s Perishable Checkout feature added fresh groceries to their carts.
Evercore set its $355 price target using a 30-times multiple of its 2028 price-to-earnings estimate and retained Amazon as a top large-cap position.
Amazon is also expanding its electricity supply in Sweden as it increases data-center capacity in the Nordic country.
The company signed long-term agreements to purchase power from four wind farms developed by Eolus AB and OX2 AB.
The projects are expected to add almost 200 megawatts of electricity to Amazon’s supply. Once fully operational, the company expects to have nearly 1 gigawatt of power supply in Sweden.
The agreements come as major technology companies increase investments in electricity capacity to support growing demand from cloud computing and AI services.
Amazon plans to add another 2 million Nvidia graphics processing units to its data-center fleet in 2027 and 2028, in addition to the 1 million GPUs it previously said would begin being installed this year.
Amazon Web Services has also announced plans to acquire DuckLabs, the Amsterdam-based company behind open-source analytical database DuckDB, to strengthen its analytics capabilities.
Analysts remain bullish on AmazonWall Street sentiment toward Amazon has remained positive, with 22 analysts recently revising their earnings estimates upward. The consensus price target implies 27% upside from current levels.
Citizens maintained a Market Outperform rating, citing Amazon’s logistics capabilities and AI model growth.
Rosenblatt Securities also initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $335 price target, highlighting expected growth in Amazon Web Services.
A Motley Fool report argued that Amazon’s valuation looks attractive relative to Microsoft when its growth rate is considered.
It highlighted AWS as a key driver, noting that the cloud division accounts for 60% of Amazon’s operating income and that its operating income increased 64% year over year in the second quarter.
Growth stocks are attractive to many investors, as above-average financial growth helps these stocks easily grab the market's attention and produce exceptional returns. However, it isn't easy to find a great growth stock.
That's because, these stocks usually carry above-average risk and volatility. In fact, betting on a stock for which the growth story is actually over or nearing its end could lead to significant loss.
However, it's pretty easy to find cutting-edge growth stocks with the help of the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company's real growth prospects.
Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) is one such stock that our proprietary system currently recommends. The company not only has a favorable Growth Score, but also carries a top Zacks Rank.
Research shows that stocks carrying the best growth features consistently beat the market. And for stocks that have a combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), returns are even better.
While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this online retailer is a great growth pick right now, we have highlighted three of the most important factors below:
Earnings GrowthArguably nothing is more important than earnings growth, as surging profit levels is what most investors are after. And for growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is definitely preferable, and often an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.
While the historical EPS growth rate for Amazon is 43.4%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 82.1% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 15%.
Cash Flow GrowthWhile cash is the lifeblood of any business, higher-than-average cash flow growth is more important and beneficial for growth-oriented companies than for mature companies. That's because, growth in cash flow enables these companies to expand their businesses without depending on expensive outside funds.
Right now, year-over-year cash flow growth for Amazon is 28%, which is higher than many of its peers. In fact, the rate compares to the industry average of -7.2%.
While investors should actually consider the current cash flow growth, it's worth taking a look at the historical rate too for putting the current reading into proper perspective. The company's annualized cash flow growth rate has been 25.3% over the past 3-5 years versus the industry average of 11.1%.
Promising Earnings Estimate RevisionsBeyond the metrics outlined above, investors should consider the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is a plus here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
The current-year earnings estimates for Amazon have been revising upward. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 2.6% over the past month.
Bottom LineAmazon has not only earned a Growth Score of B based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above, but it also carries a Zacks Rank #2 because of the positive earnings estimate revisions.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
This combination positions Amazon well for outperformance, so growth investors may want to bet on it.
Americké akciové trhy v pátek zakončují týden v opatrnějším režimu. Po výrazném růstu technologických akcií z předchozího dne se investoři soustředili na projev předsedy Federálního rezervního systému Kevina Warsh(e) v Jackson Hole a na další vývoj americké měnové politiky.
Podle dostupných údajů index S&P 500 během pátečního obchodování oslabil přibližně o 0,3 %, Dow Jones ztratil kolem 0,1 % a technologický Nasdaq odepsal zhruba 0,5 %. Trh tak část zisků z předchozího dne odevzdal.
Hlavním impulzem pro dnešní vývoj byl projev Kevina Warshe na sympoziu v Jackson Hole. Šéf Fedu zdůraznil, že cenová stabilita zůstává klíčovou povinností centrální banky a že inflace je stále příliš vysoká. Zároveň nedal trhu jednoznačný příslib dalšího vývoje sazeb, čímž ponechal prostor pro případné zvýšení sazeb v září.
Reakce byla výraznější na dluhopisovém trhu. Výnos desetiletého amerického státního dluhopisu vzrostl přibližně z 4,67 % na 4,72 %. Trh následně zvýšil odhad pravděpodobnosti zářijového zvýšení sazeb. Vyšší výnosy jsou obecně méně příznivé pro růstové a technologické akcie, jejichž valuace jsou citlivější na cenu peněz.
Pozornost investorů zůstává také u Nvidie. Společnost ve čtvrtek zveřejnila velmi silné výsledky a výhled, což pomohlo technologickému sektoru k výraznému růstu. V pátek však Nvidia část zisku odevzdala a její akcie klesly přibližně o 4 %.
Vývoj v polovodičovém sektoru ukazuje, že investoři jsou po mimořádném růstu AI akcií stále citlivější na ocenění. Marvell Technology například oslabil přibližně o 10 % navzdory tomu, že výsledky překonaly očekávání. Trh tak začíná více řešit, zda vysoká očekávání spojená s AI dokážou ospravedlnit současné valuace.
Páteční vývoj zároveň nebyl plošným výprodejem technologií. Některé velké technologické společnosti naopak rostly. Amazon například podle dostupných údajů přidal přes 3 % a Microsoft zhruba 2 %, zatímco Nvidia a ASML oslabovaly. To naznačuje spíše rotaci uvnitř velkých technologických titulů než odchod investorů z celého sektoru.
Mezi nejvýraznější pohyby dne patřil propad PayPalu, jehož akcie ztrácely zhruba 12 % po zprávách, že potenciální kupující odstoupili od plánů na převzetí společnosti
Páteční pokles Wall Street zatím nepůsobí jako změna dlouhodobého trendu. Spíše jde o kombinaci vybírání zisků po silném růstu Nvidie, vyšších výnosů amerických dluhopisů a nejistoty ohledně dalšího kroku Fedu.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MSFT 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.
AWS is Amazon's (AMZN +1.33%) most lucrative segment, with the highest profit margin.
*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of Aug. 21, 2026. The video was published on Aug.23, 2026.
Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
Amazon is developing an automated delivery-station concept that could process packages at about 2.5 times the rate of the company's existing delivery stations, Seeking Alpha reported Monday (Aug. 24), citing a paywalled article by Business Insider.
Amazon (AMZN +1.33%) stock has trailed the S&P 500 for most of 2026 and is now in line with the large-cap benchmark, up 12% year-to-date.
There are several reasons Amazon's stock has lagged for most of this year, but there is one major reason investors should buy it now in August.
Image source: Getty Images.
Amazon stock is trading at one of its lowest valuations in a long time. Its current P/E ratio is 21, and other than a dip to 19 in June of this year, it hasn't been this low in at least 10 years, but likely much farther back than that.
AMZN PE Ratio data by YCharts
That right there is enough to signal a strong buy on Amazon stock. Any time one of the largest, most successful companies in the world, one of the Magnificent Seven stocks, is trading at a decade-low valuation, the buy sign should be flashing.
In Amazon's case, it is the leader in both of its major markets: e-commerce and cloud computing. It's just a no-brainer buy right now.
A massive $496 billion backlog The dirt cheap valuation is the number one reason to buy, but also, Amazon is heading back in the right direction after a bumpy start to the year.
One of the chief concerns about Amazon was its massive increase in spending on artificial intelligence. At the start of the year, Amazon proposed a whopping $200 billion in capital expenditures to maintain the huge demand for AI infrastructure. That's some 51% more capex spending than in 2025.
Investors balked, as Amazon had been steadily losing market share to Microsoft (MSFT +0.84%) and Google, owned by Alphabet (GOOG +0.83%) (GOOGL +0.94%), so they questioned whether more spending was the answer, particularly given its cash-flow depletion.
But Amazon officials argued that the infrastructure was necessary to regain lost market share and meet demand from its growing backlog of $496 billion in contracts. In fact, CEO Andy Jassy said on the Q2 call that Amazon now projects $220 billion in capex in 2026.
"Even at that 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," Jassy said on the call.
Analysts are bullish on Amazon The investments may already be paying off as Amazon reported blowout second-quarter earnings. Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing business, had its fastest growth in more than four years with revenue rising 37%. Overall revenue increased 20%.
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Further, its operating income soared 43% to $27.5 billion while net income increased 243% to $62.6 billion, boosted by its investments in Anthropic.
Amazon anticipates sales to rise 9% to 12% year over year in the third quarter and operating income to be between $22.5 billion and $26.5 billion, up 29% at the midpoint.
That's not quite the growth rate Amazon saw in Q2, but at that low multiple, Amazon stock is just too attractive to pass up with its massive earnings power and growing backlog. Wall Street is almost unanimously in agreement, with 97% of analysts rating it a buy and a median price target of $327 per share. That suggests 27% upside for Amazon stock.
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An Amazon worker loads boxes into a delivery vehicle. Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images Amazon is developing a new generation of highly automated warehouses that use AI and robotics to process packages at the final stop before delivery.
The initiative, internally called Project Tetromino, is intended to build "fully automated" delivery stations, according to an internal planning document from last month that Business Insider reviewed. Delivery stations are the final facility in the shipping process, receiving packaged items from fulfillment centers before sorting and staging them for drivers to deliver to customers.
According to the document, Amazon planned to invest $103 million in an initial Tetromino pilot in 2028, followed by five sites in 2029 and 10 more in 2030. Each 2029 site could cost about $85 million, bringing the total Tetromino investment to more than $530 million by 2029, the document said. It also said Tetromino could process packages at roughly 2.5 times the rate of its existing delivery station design.
An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that this is an "early-stage concept" and the specific financial figures and road map in the document are "inaccurate and don't reflect our current plans."
"We're always exploring and testing new technologies across our operations to improve safety and the delivery experience for customers," the spokesperson said. "Like any early-stage concept, this is one of many initiatives we regularly evaluate, and plans evolve significantly as we learn."
Tetromino offers a glimpse of how Amazon is trying to automate one of the most stubbornly manual parts of its logistics network. Industry analysts say tasks such as organizing and loading packages into vehicles at delivery stations remain difficult and expensive to automate.
The project comes as Amazon accelerates a broader warehouse automation push. On its latest earnings call in July, the company said it expects to more than double its fleet of robotic arms in 2026. Business Insider previously reported that Amazon is also deploying software that automatically recommends where warehouse workers should be assigned as workloads change.
Amazon's Tetris-like challengeOne of Tetromino's key technologies could come from Boxbot, an AI and robotics supply chain startup, according to the planning document. Boxbot's system moves packages from conveyors onto trays for storage, then uses AI to retrieve and sequence them for delivery. Boxbot's website says the system can make the vehicle-loading process up to 10 times faster. Boxbot did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Tetromino name itself may be a nod to the game Tetris, reflecting the puzzle-like challenge of efficiently organizing packages for delivery vehicles.
Amazon isn't alone in trying to automate these tasks. FedEx is expanding its use of AI-powered Dexterity robots that autonomously load packages into trailers, while UPS and DHL use robots for unloading. The Amazon spokesperson also pointed to delivery station pilots announced last year as part of a €700 million investment in European facilities, including machines that unload, sort, and scan packages.
The push toward more automated facilities raises questions about what Amazon's warehouses will ultimately need humans to do.
Amazon robotics chief Tye Brady previously told Business Insider that robots are intended to make frontline work safer and more efficient, not replace employees. Nevertheless, Amazon has internally projected that some warehouse robots will "flatten" its hiring curve over the next decade, Business Insider previously reported.
The Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider the company's delivery-station initiatives are "designed to complement and empower our workforce and employees remain central to how we operate."
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Eugene is Business Insider’s Chief Tech Correspondent, where he leads coverage of Amazon. His reporting spans the company’s retail operations, AWS, Alexa, and its secretive internal work culture.Previously, he worked at CNBC, Fortune Magazine Korea, and Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun. He holds degrees from NYU and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.In 2022, Eugene broke a story uncovering Amazon’s practice of deceptively enrolling customers in Prime and deliberately making cancellation difficult. A year later, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company, citing his reporting. That case culminated in a record $2.5 billion settlement in 2025.His reporting has earned multiple honors, including the SF Press Club’s Bay Area Journalism Award and SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award.Eugene lives in the Bay Area. Contact him via email at [email protected], or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. ExpertiseAmazon, Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, e-commerce, and cloud computing.Popular ArticlesAmazon:Internal Amazon emails give an exclusive look at how CEO Andy Jassy has started to run the company, with obsessive attention to the retail business and what some employees feel is micromanagingAndy Jassy will be the next CEO of Amazon. Insiders dish on what it's like to work for Jeff Bezos' successor, who built AWS into a $40 billion business.Internal documents show Amazon has for years knowingly tricked people into signing up for Prime subscriptions. 'We have been deliberately confusing,' former employee says.Inside Amazon's flailing brick-and-mortar ambitions: missed projections, pressure to cut costs, and a war with Whole FoodsInside Amazon's complex employee-review system, where workers feel left in the dark and managers expect to give 5% of reports bad reviewsAfter 28 years, 'Day 2' finally arrives at AmazonAWS, Alexa, healthcare:Inside Amazon's struggle to break into the lucrative market for SaaS business applications, including an internal pitch to buy $38 billion HubSpotInside Amazon's struggle to crack Nvidia's AI-chip dominanceAmazon's AI data center dream runs into the reality of 'zombie' facilities, higher costs, and labor shortagesAmazon is gutting its voice assistant, Alexa. Employees describe a division in crisis and huge losses on 'a wasted opportunity.'Amazon is working on a new 'Remarkable Alexa,' but internal politics and technical issues plague the projectAmazon projected huge losses from its healthcare business in 2024, but strong sales growth, internal document reveals
Image Credits:Amazon Over the weekend, Amazon significantly raised the prices of its hardware devices, jacking them up by as much as 60 percent in some cases.
The price explosion impacted Fire TVs, Echos, Kindles, and Eeros. One egregious example that’s been cited is that of the Echo Dot, one of Amazon’s cheapest smart speakers, the price of which jumped 60% overnight, from $49.99 to $79.99. Price tracking sites like CamelCamelCamel show the stark uptick, which has previously hovered much lower.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Amazon shared the following: “The consumer electronics industry is facing significant increases in memory and storage component costs. After absorbing these increases for as long as we could, we recently adjusted pricing across our product lines.”
The company also said that it would continue to offer occasional promotions to customers over the course of the next year.
Amazon’s price hikes reinforce the reality that it’s a terrible time to buy hardware. The global memory shortage fueled by the AI boom (also known as “RAMmageddon“) is driving up the cost of producing devices of all stripes. As a result, companies are increasingly passing on the costs to their customers.
In a sign of the times, Apple recently hiked its prices, and has sought to offset the steep new rates by introducing a device leasing program, thus allowing users to pay off their devices over time.
The RAM shortage is expected to continue throughout 2027 before prices potentially crest and stabilize in 2028.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN, Financials) is taking another step into the robotaxi race, and this time it's marching directly into Waymo's home turf.
Amazon-owned Zoox has begun deploying its fully autonomous vehicles onto the streets of San Francisco, putting the business in more direct confrontation with Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, Financials).Zoox's automobiles are unlike any typical automobile. They have no steering wheel or pedals, are bi-directional and seat four people facing each other.
The business has now clocked over 3 million autonomous miles and carried close to 1 million passengers, The Wall Street Journal reported. Zoox also began charging for rides in Las Vegas on Aug. 10 after gaining a government exemption to operate vehicles commercially without conventional driver controls. “San Francisco is a bigger test.
Waymo has a large presence there already, so Zoox has to show its purpose-built strategy can function at scale in one of the most scrutinized autonomous driving markets. In 2020, Amazon acquired Zoox for roughly $1.2 billion. The company is still small relative to AWS and e-commerce, but the possibility is considerably bigger if robotaxis become commonplace.
That's why this expansion is worth keeping an eye on. Amazon is not only financing an autonomous-driving experiment anymore. Now it's starting to take that experiment out into actual cities, with paying consumers and a well established rival waiting in the wings.
customers could face higher bills for AI server systems next year, with prices expected to rise more than 15% in some cases.
Shares dipped 2% on Monday after the news.
The increases are expected to affect machines using Nvidia's newer Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell platforms. The final adjustment could vary depending on the chip generation and memory configuration.
Server manufacturers serving major cloud companies, including Microsoft
MSFT +0.96% 96
, Alphabet
GOOGL +1.2% 96
and Oracle
ORCL -2.18% 92
, have reportedly informed customers about the planned increases. Rising memory costs are adding pressure as data center operators continue expanding AI infrastructure.
Nvidia remains a key supplier for large AI deployments despite growing efforts by Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta Platforms (META) to develop their own chips. Nvidia is scheduled to report its second-quarter results on Aug. 26.
Higher server pricing could support Nvidia's revenue outlook, although rising system costs may pressure customers' AI spending.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares are rising on Monday. Citizens reiterated a Market Outperform rating and $315 price target, pointing to strong revenue growth at OpenAI and Anthropic as a positive signal for cloud providers like AWS. Here’s what you should know.
Amazon.com stock is showing upward movement. Why is AMZN stock trading higher? Citizens Sees AI Demand Supporting AWSCitizens analyst Andrew Boone framed the strength coming out of leading AI labs as a good sign for the companies renting out the underlying computing power, according to Investing.com.
Boone said that when frontier AI developers keep growing at this pace, it shows the massive sums poured into building and training these models are actually paying off once those models get put to work answering real queries, a dynamic that benefits infrastructure players like AWS. He also sees the trend as a signal that hyperscalers won’t have much spare server capacity sitting idle anytime soon.
Amazon’s Chart Remains Constructive Despite Sitting Near Short-Term SupportThat AI-driven optimism lines up with a technical picture that still leans bullish. Shares are trading about 5% above their 50-day moving average of $250.15 and roughly 10.2% above their 200-day average of $238.39, with a golden cross from May, when the 50-day average crossed above the 200-day, continuing to frame the broader trend as positive.
The near-term picture is more of a coin flip. Shares are sitting almost exactly on their 20-day moving average of $262.95, trading about 0.1% below it, level short-term traders often treat as a key line in the sand. Holding that area would likely keep the door open for a retest of recent highs rather than a deeper slide. The relative strength index sits at 53.12, a neutral reading suggesting the stock isn’t stretched in either direction or stands in contrast to the more overbought conditions seen in August.
Traders are watching $287 as resistance, just below the 52-week high near $287.20 where past rallies have stalled, and $226 as support, a level tied to a deeper pullback zone from earlier in the year.
Amazon Outperforms its Sector as the Broader Market SlipsBeyond the technical picture, Amazon’s relative strength also shows up clearly against its own sector. The stock is outpacing its Consumer Discretionary peers today, up 1.63% versus the sector’s 0.52% gain, even as the Nasdaq is down 0.70%. That gap suggests buyers are favoring specific discretionary names rather than lifting the market broadly.
Consumer Discretionary itself ranks mid-pack today at 5th out of 11 sectors, and while the group is up 7.02% over the past 30 days, it remains down 0.69% over the past 90 days, a choppier stretch where individual stock leadership matters more than sector-wide momentum.
AMZN Shares Are ClimbingAMZN Price Action: Amazon.com shares were up 1.53% at $262.59 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro.
E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB reduced its position in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 4.2% in the undefined quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 816,066 shares of the e-commerce giant's stock after selling 35,571 shares during the period.
Diversified Management Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 6.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,758 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 1,991 shares during the period. Amazon.com comprises about 1.5% of Diversified Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Diversified Management Inc.’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $6,854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Amazon.com during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,868,735,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Amazon.com by 27,376.7% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 98,448,885 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,272,397,000 after buying an additional 98,090,585 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 20,598.0% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 87,982,814 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $20,308,193,000 after buying an additional 87,557,736 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amazon.com during the first quarter worth $11,674,091,000. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 879.4% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 27,862,400 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,431,199,000 after buying an additional 25,017,588 shares in the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analysts Set New Price Targets Several research firms recently weighed in on AMZN. Phillip Securities downgraded Amazon.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $320.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $328.00 price target (up from $322.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target (up from $340.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.39.
View Our Latest Report on AMZN Insider Transactions at Amazon.com In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.76, for a total value of $982,985.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 467,138 shares in the company, valued at approximately $122,745,180.88. This trade represents a 0.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 6,741 shares of company stock worth $1,767,335 over the last 90 days. 8.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Trending Headlines about Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: AI and AWS remain the main bullish catalysts: Amazon is part of a group of major technology companies expected to spend approximately $615 billion on AI infrastructure this year. AWS growth, a reported $496 billion backlog and an AI annualized revenue run rate above $25 billion reinforce the view that Amazon’s capital spending could translate into stronger long-term cloud revenue. AI infrastructure spending article Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is strong: Rosenblatt initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $335 price target. The broader analyst consensus remains Moderately Buy, with an average target of about $322.56, suggesting substantial potential upside if AWS growth and margins improve. Rosenblatt coverage report Positive Sentiment: New growth initiatives could expand Amazon’s ecosystem: Prime Video plans to invest more than $2 billion in Latin America from 2027 through 2030, while the company is targeting drone delivery in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns. Amazon also selected Austin for a multibillion-dollar robotics facility expected to create up to 500 jobs. Prime Video Latin America investment Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic investment offers both strategic value and valuation uncertainty: Amazon’s stake in the AI startup could become highly valuable if reported IPO valuations hold, and Anthropic supports AWS demand. However, some analysts question whether the private company’s potential valuation is justified by its current revenue and cash generation. Anthropic valuation analysis Negative Sentiment: Investors are concerned about spending and near-term returns: The $2 billion Prime Video expansion adds to Amazon’s investment burden, while the market is focusing more on underlying cash generation than gains related to the rising value of Anthropic. Amazon Prime Video investment analysis Negative Sentiment: Competitive and execution risks remain: SpaceX’s Starlink has more than 11,000 satellites compared with Amazon Leo’s fewer than 1,000, highlighting a significant gap in the satellite broadband race. Drone deliveries also face regulatory, noise, safety and reliability hurdles, including recent delivery mishaps. Starlink and Amazon Leo comparison Amazon.com Price Performance Shares of Amazon.com stock opened at $258.63 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $249.86 and its 200 day moving average is $239.32. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The business had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current year.
Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com VIG, VYM, and VYMI: Which Vanguard Dividend ETF Is Right for You? 3 Closed-End Funds to Maximize Dividend Payments Rocket Lab’s Sell-Off Is Fading—Is It Finally Safe to Buy? $27 Billion in Buybacks: 3 Stocks Betting Their Strong Runs Aren’t Over Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AMZN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report).
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Right now, it may not seem0 like a fair fight. In one corner, you have Amazon (AMZN -0.57%), currently the market's fifth most valuable company, weighing in with a market cap of $2.8 tiillion. In the other corner, you have Tesla (TSLA +5.14%) and recent IPO Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +2.22%). They're slightly smaller than Amazon, but when the two Elon Musk companies are combined, they add up to a market cap of $3.3 trillion.
If we use enterprise value rather than market cap, accounting for each side's net debt position, the valuation gap narrows slightly. Amazon, at $2.9 trillion, still falls short of Tesla and SpaceX, at $3.2 trillion. The math is likely to be easier by 2030, with many market pros expecting Tesla and SpaceX to merge into a single entity well before then. But I believe that e-commerce pioneer Amazon will be worth more than even a pairing of Tesla and SpaceX by 2030.
Agree? Disagree? Hear me out.
Image source: Getty Images.
Amazon in 2026 Right now, Amazon stock is the steadier and more profitable investment. It's growing its business faster than Tesla but slower than SpaceX. Fueled by its high-margin, fast-growing Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-hosting business, overall profitability is expanding on accelerating revenue growth.
Net sales climbed 20% for Amazon's latest quarter. That may not seem like much, but it's Amazon's strongest year-over-year gain in five years. Its flagship e-commerce business is picking up, rising 16% in North America in its latest quarter. However, it's the 37% jump at AWS that's turning heads. AWS generated just 21% of Amazon's top-line results in the second quarter, but it delivered 60% of the operating income.
Analysts see Amazon generating $133 billion in net income on net sales of $828 billion this year. Even with Amazon cutting big checks to bankroll its AI initiatives, it's also a major beneficiary of the boom as a leading hosting platform. It's trading at a reasonable 21 times this year's projected earnings. The multiple creeps closer to 25 when looking ahead to next year, as capex picks up to stay ahead of the pack in the AI race.
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Tesla and SpaceX in 2026 Tesla and SpaceX may seem to be passing ships -- spaceships, if you will -- these days. Tesla's revenue declined last year as car sales suffered amid a broader slowdown in electric vehicles. The end of the federal tax credits and lackluster Cybertruck sales didn't help. Business has bounced back in 2026, with back-to-back quarters of double-digit revenue growth, but profitability has contracted.
SpaceX has been public for a little more than two months. It has launched, and it has crashed. Today, it's barely above its IPO price of $135 per share. Just don't call SpaceX stock boring. It's the speedster of the three companies here. Revenue has risen roughly 33% in the past two years. Between Starlink and the push for reusable rockets, it will probably remain the speedster.
Tesla and SpaceX should combine to produce $5 billion in earnings on $151 billion in revenue this year. Looking back, the valuation argument favors Amazon. It's generating a double-digit net margin, compared with just 3% for the one-two punch of Tesla and SpaceX. Amazon's projected profit is nearly equal to the other entity's revenue. However, investing for the future requires a longer look. Let's see how these investments will be faring four years from now.
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Here comes 2030 A lot will happen over the next few years. The valuation gap will narrow as Tesla and SpaceX grow their profitability and revenue much faster than Amazon, particularly SpaceX, if Wall Street's ambitious projections pan out.
Amazon will be in good shape four years from now. The consensus estimates call for $215 billion in net income on $1.38 trillion in net sales in 2030, representing increases of 62% and 66%, respectively. It may seem disappointing to see the top line outpace the bottom line, but Amazon has carved out a cozy living over the long haul by trouncing profit targets.
Tesla and SpaceX should combine to generate a total of $151 billion in net income on $636 billion in revenue, based on 2030 forecasts. Here's where the tables turn. It's Tesla with SpaceX generating the wider net margin in 2030, propelled by SpaceX's business model of high-margin satellite-based connectivity and its cost-effective future rockets.
The decision gets a bit harder with 2030 goggles on, but I'm sticking with Amazon. It will still be more profitable and generate double the revenue of the alternative. Tesla and SpaceX will be growing faster -- and if the companies inevitably merge, the synergies may make their financials even more impressive. However, much more can go wrong with Tesla and SpaceX than with Amazon's more reliable trajectory. Amazon should be worth more in 2030.
Tamara Hancock has placed over a dozen Amazon drone delivery orders since December 2024. Courtesy of Tamara Hancock This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tamara Hancock, who lives in the greater Phoenix area — one of the first areas to have access to Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery service, which is expanding to 500 US cities by the end of the year. She's used the service over a dozen times and enjoys it for the convenience and fun. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
We live in one of the very first pilot areas in the US for Amazon drone delivery.
When I first saw that the service was available, I was like, "We're definitely trying this out!" I'm a professor and content creator, and the basis of the content on my channel is that I really like to learn and explore literally everything and find out how it works, from food to drone delivery.
My daughter's a clarinet player, and I found out that a package of reeds could be delivered by drone, so I thought, why not? It's not something super fragile that, if dropped from a height, would break.
I ordered it, picked the drone delivery option for $2.99, and immediately went to my backyard to wait the hour or so for the delivery. When the drone came, I hid myself partially under a tree, because if the optics on the drone sense a human or an animal, it will abort delivery and leave so that it doesn't hurt anybody or anything.
How remote drone strikes actually work, according to a former US military sensor operator
After the package dropped, I took it inside, and we unpackaged everything. Everything was intact and great. It was awesome.
It's cool to watch the dronesMy husband's an aerospace engineer, and my kids and I are really nerdy, so we get really excited about aviation and things like that. The drone warehouse is about three miles from us, and there's a road behind it that you can park on. You can see the drones taking off and landing there, and we like to park there and spot them.
I've probably used Amazon drone delivery over a dozen times, both for the convenience and for the sake of content. I just gauge whether I want to pay the extra few dollars to have it delivered.
It's worth it to me because of the price of gas. For me to go to the music store and buy those reeds, it would cost way more. Sometimes, though, it's not worth the price difference.
Once we were in need of something for my daughter's school project — pipe cleaners, markers, or something. We could've gone to the Walmart down the road and gotten it, but I was also baking bread and had other things going on in the house, so it was a lot more convenient to have it sent to my house via drone. The convenience of it is a huge factor for us.
There was once an issue in the area where two drones collided midair with a construction crane. They shut down drone delivery for about 48 hours in order to investigate. I wasn't in town when it happened, which I'm kind of bummed about.
I understand all of the concerns about dronesMy neighbor got a delivery a couple of days ago, early in the morning, and I was in bed and could hear it. But it's no more annoying than his leaf blower, which he also uses early in the mornings.
You don't really hear the drone until it's almost low enough to drop the package, and it's there for less than a minute. We also live in the flight path of an airport, so I hear airplanes going over all the time. It's no more disruptive than that.
I think the 35 seconds of noise you get are worth the convenience, novelty, and all of the fun of it.
What caught me completely off guard was how windy the drone is, which is extremely disruptive when it drops. We haven't really seen an impact on our yard, though there was one day we had freshly mowed our lawn, and grass clippings did fly around a bit.
The biggest question that I get on my drone delivery videos is, "What if it's fragile? What if it breaks?" I decided to do an experiment.
The only thing I could find that was deliverable by drone was a bottle of drink syrup. It was in a plastic bottle, not glass, so I can see why Amazon thought that it would be fine.
When the box was delivered, it hit the edge of our cement patio, which caused the lid to crack and break. You can choose where your drop goes, but I've been having some technical issues, so I'm unable to move my spot. I'm working with the Amazon technical team to get it moved onto my grass, but for now, packages are landing on the edge of the concrete.
Another concern I hear is about pets, animals, or people. If the optics recognize that there's anything down there, it will abort delivery. My 21-year-old son and I actually tried it once. He walked out into the backyard to look up at the drone, and it aborted delivery. You have a one-hour delivery window, so you know when it's coming. If your dogs are in the backyard, bring them in.
People also shared privacy concerns in the comments of my first drone video, so I looked into it. The navigation system does use cameras and optics to guide where it's going, like Tesla and Waymo self-driving cars. When I first set up a delivery, I was given the option to tell it not to save that footage. I think they've made this permanent; it's not really a big concern for me.
In terms of drivers losing their livelihood, I don't see it as an issue. A friend who works at the Amazon warehouse told me that a lot of people are being cross-trained, so employees can move to different locations if needed.
There's a five-pound limit to drone-delivered items, and it has to fit within the huge box that goes in the drone. The majority of things we order from Amazon are heavier than five pounds and bigger than the box, so we're still getting regular deliveries. This is just a quicker way for certain things to be delivered.
Embrace the technologyDrone delivery is here to stay. It's not going anywhere.
In the last two years, I haven't seen anything that's causing major environmental harm. I'd say enjoy it, have fun with it, and try it at least once.
We need to embrace the technology as it's coming in. Don't be afraid of something new, just because it's new. Approach things with a grain of salt, but also with a sense of wonder and excitement.
An Amazon spokesperson said, "We appreciate hearing from Amazon customers about their experiences using our fast, convenient Prime Air drone delivery service. Prime Air offers up to millions of items at everyday low prices and we are excited to bring this service to more cities and towns around the country."
Do you have a story to share about your experience with Amazon Prime Air? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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Jane Zhang You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Jane Zhang is a senior associate editor on Business Insider's Business Contributors and Freelance team, where she writes and edits compelling first-person stories and as-told-to essays that explore the personal narratives within themes of money, business, and tech. She also runs Business Insider’s For Love & Money advice column about relationships and money.Jane holds a master’s degree in journalism and international relations from New York University and her bachelor’s in anthropology from Yale-NUS College in Singapore. She was previously a Senior Writer at Mothership.sg, and her work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, Hell Gate, and The Yappie. She was a fellow with the Asian American Journalists Association VOICES program in 2023.Jane grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, spent eight years living in Singapore and two years in New York City, and now resides in Chicago.If you'd like to share your story with Business Insider, reach out to Jane via [email protected], [email protected], or janezhang.01 on Signal. You can also connect with her on X and LinkedIn.Selected articles:Life after Google: 8 laid-off employees reflect on being let go, what they did next, and their advice for othersI quit McKinsey after 1 ½ years. I was making over $200k but my mental health was shattered.I'm a millionaire, and my partner makes $60K. I don't ask him to split bills 50-50 because it's not fair.My dad is billionaire Steve Ballmer. Here's what it was like growing up rich — and being kind of ashamed of it.My family came to the US undocumented. People say we're criminals stealing jobs and benefits but here's what I wish they knew.Selected edits:My dad sacrificed everything to retire early — only to die before he could enjoy it. I'll never recommend early retirement to anyone.I was laid off from Amazon, rejoined, and quit less than 3 months later after 4 red flags told me the culture had changedMy fiancé and I make a combined $300,000 a year. We use a 90/5/5 budgeting system — here's a detailed breakdown.I'm a former Google exec who's manipulated people to get what I want. When done right, it's an essential career skill.I was promoted 5 times in 6.5 years. A one-hour 'pre-read' meeting strategy was the key to my success.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) shares are trading at $258.63 as of Friday’s close, down 2.47% over the past week but up 14.19% year to date. Still, shares of the hyperscaler sit well below their 52-week high of $287.16, and the Street’s consensus price target sits at $280.47.
Most analysts hold constructive but measured outlooks. TD Cowen, however, is making a significantly bolder call on AWS revenue, centered on one argument: Wall Street is still underestimating Amazon’s AI-driven cloud growth. Can AMZN realistically reach TD Cowen’s implied target by end of 2026?
TD Cowen’s $165 Billion AWS Prediction TD Cowen raised its AWS revenue estimate to $165 billion for 2026, placing it 3% above Wall Street consensus, and extended that view to $222 billion for 2027, which is 11% above consensus. The firm’s thesis rests on generative AI tailwinds and Amazon’s commitment to approximately $200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, predominantly directed at AI infrastructure. TD Cowen believes the divergence between its estimates and consensus will widen as enterprise AI workloads accelerate through the year.
Key Drivers of AMZN Stock Performance 1. AWS acceleration with room to run: AWS closed Q4 2025 at a $142 billion annualized run rate, growing 24% year-over-year, the fastest pace in 13 quarters. That trajectory directly underpins TD Cowen’s $165 billion estimate. A cloud business compounding at that rate inside a diversified mega-cap offers durable, long-horizon growth without the volatility of pure-play AI names.
2. Custom silicon creating a structural cost advantage: Amazon’s Trainium and Graviton chips now carry a combined annualized revenue run rate well over $10 billion, growing triple-digit percentages year-over-year. Proprietary chips lower inference costs for customers and improve Amazon’s own economics, compounding margins over time.
3. Enterprise AI adoption still in early innings: Over 100,000 companies are using Amazon Bedrock, and CEO Andy Jassy described enterprise production workloads as “the lion’s share of that demand still yet to come.” That pipeline represents multi-year compounding revenue with a 5-to-10-year horizon.
What Will It Take for AMZN to Reach TD Cowen’s Target? With 10.73 billion shares outstanding and a current market cap of approximately $2.2 trillion, meaningful upside requires AWS to sustain its growth trajectory while operating margins expand. Three conditions matter most: AWS must maintain or accelerate its growth rate through 2026 as new AI capacity comes online; the $200 billion CapEx cycle must translate into revenue faster than the market currently models; and enterprise migration from on-premise infrastructure to cloud must continue broadening beyond the AI labs that currently dominate demand.
The primary risk is straightforward: Free cash flow declined 37.12% year-over-year in Q4 2025 as CapEx surged, and sustaining that investment pace without visible near-term return will pressure sentiment. Still, with 63 out of 67 analyst ratings at Buy or Strong Buy and TD Cowen’s AWS estimates sitting materially above consensus through 2027, the institutional conviction behind this growth story remains among the strongest in large-cap tech.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
New reports indicate that artificial intelligence (AI) lab Anthropic could file its S-1 by the end of the month. Below, I'll detail why Anthropic's public debut carries outsize implications for major backers like Amazon (AMZN -0.57%), whose growth is intertwined with the start-up's trajectory.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Reviewing Anthropic's funding and IPO ambitions Reports from Bloomberg suggest Anthropic is aiming for an initial public offering (IPO) that matches or exceeds Space Exploration Technologies' record raise from earlier this summer. Anthropic has already raised roughly $133 billion to date, most recently in a $65 billion Series H round that valued it at $965 billion. This near-trillion-dollar figure reflects Anthropic's explosive growth, with recent quarterly revenue surpassing $11.5 billion and an annualized run rate approaching $65 billion.
Why Amazon investors should pay attention to Anthropic's IPO Amazon investors have good reason to monitor the Anthropic offering. Amazon has already invested $13 billion in Anthropic, with commitments for up to an additional $20 billion contingent on commercial milestones.
Beyond simple equity ownership, the partnership between Amazon and Anthropic runs deep through AWS. Anthropic uses Amazon's custom silicon for training and inference, including a massive deployment under Project Rainier that utilizes over 1 million Amazon Trainium chips, complemented by its Graviton processors.
Anthropic's Claude models power a number of features on Amazon Bedrock for more than 100,000 customers. Meanwhile, the company has pledged more than $100 billion in AWS spending over the next 10 years to secure up to 5 gigawatts of capacity.
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Assessing Amazon's upside Anthropic's S-1 will provide more precise disclosure around Amazon's ownership. With exact percentages known, investors can better model the position's value. Accurate knowledge of the value of Amazon's stake can help improve forecasts of AWS' revenue acceleration and operating margin expansion driven by Anthropic's compute demands. In turn, I think a fundamental rerating in Amazon stock could follow as investors gain a deeper understanding of Anthropic's influence on Amazon's position in the AI infrastructure supercycle.
Adam Spatacco has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The earnings statement is where most investors go first when assessing a company's financial results. On that score, Amazon (AMZN -0.57%) looks like it had a breakout quarter in the second quarter of 2026, with earnings of $5.75 per diluted share, up from $1.68 in the same quarter of 2025. But there's a winkle here, and the story gets even more complicated when you step back and examine the cash flow statement.
Amazon's quarter wasn't really as good as it looks Earnings are created by complying with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). They are, even at the best of times, just a hazy snapshot of a company's performance. That's highlighted by Amazon's $5.75 second-quarter earnings figure, which includes $69 billion in "other" income. That isn't likely to be repeated, as it is related to the company's investment in Anthropic. And if Anthropic's value declines, that benefit could actually reverse.
Image source: Getty Images.
But the presence of that number, which was actually larger than the company's $51.3 billion in operating income, highlights why investors also look at the cash flow statement. The cash flow statement shows where the company's cash is generated and how it is used. For years, large technology companies like Amazon generated huge amounts of cash, allowing them to amass large cash balances to fund their businesses, capital investment needs, and acquisitions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the cash flow story. Over the past 12 months, Amazon generated around $161.4 billion in cash, up 33% year over year, but spent $169 billion, meaning the company spent around $7.6 billion more in cash than its business generated. Those are very large numbers, with AI spending driving a significant share of the company's capital investment plan.
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There's more spending to come in the AI arms race This is worth knowing because spending on artificial intelligence appears to be heating up rather than cooling down. And if Amazon isn't generating enough cash to cover its spending, it will need to find money elsewhere. Which is where another cash flow number comes into play: the nearly $77 billion the company raised over the past year from the sale of long-term debt.
This ties the story to the balance sheet, where Amazon's long-term debt rose from $65.6 billion at the end of 2025 to nearly $128.9 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2026. If you own Amazon or are considering buying it, you need to look beyond its earnings and pay close attention to the negative impact of AI spending on its cash flow statement and balance sheet.
Amazon (AMZN -0.57%) has emerged from a challenging period with high growth and massive opportunities. Its artificial intelligence (AI) spend, which provoked an exodus from the stock last year, is paying off, and the market is starting to appreciate it again.
Amazon stock is up 15% year to date, edging out the S&P 500's 13% gain, but it still looks cheap; it's trading at 21.3 times forward, 1-year earnings, a very slight premium to the S&P 500 average of 20.4.
Image source: Amazon.
Amazon has massive opportunities CEO Andy Jassy has maintained over the past few years that the AI spend is necessary to harness the incredible opportunities in AI. Amazon has a first-mover's edge and the most to gain, since it's the largest cloud company in the world.
At times, Jassy has appeared surprised by the intense, negative market reaction to what seems logical and necessary. He has reiterated many times that this is the biggest opportunity since the internet, and that there's going to be a shift to the cloud. Well, that time has come, and Amazon is ready.
Although Amazon has been reporting strong growth for a while, the second quarter was a standout. Sales increased 20% over last year, all the more impressive now that Amazon is the largest company in the world by sales. It's highly profitable as well, and operating income rose from $10 billion last year to $27.5 billion this year.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud segment, is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Sales for the cloud business increased more than 37% year over year, the highest in 18 quarters. That's in turn driven by AI. AWS offers a vast platform for AI development with a large array of features and products for every budget. It serves a huge client base of top-tier companies like Warner Bros. Discovery, Snowflake, and Moody's, all of which it signed new deals in the second quarter. AWS operating income increased from $10.2 billion to $16.6 billion, accounting for more than 60% of the total.
It also has a fast-growing chip company which would be one of the largest chip businesses in the world on its own, and it signed multi-year commitments with Anthropic and OpenAI in addition to many more clients in the second quarter. Amazon's Graviton5 chip has 25% better compute performance than Graviton4, and the line already has 30% to 40% better compute performance than similar chips. Revenue commitments for Graviton increased threefold sequentially in the second quarter.
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Investors shouldn't ignore progress in e-commerce, though. Amazon added 80 U.S. cities to its ultra-fast delivery service, which gets orders to customer in less than 30 minutes. E-commerce is still Amazon's bread and butter, and the money coming in from the core e-commerce segment provides the foundation for the company to launch new businesses like AWS and the brand-new Amazon Leo satellite broadband business, which competes with Space Exploration Technologies' Starlink business. E-commerce is still growing by double digits, and if not outshined by AI, it would be impressive on its own.
Is Amazon stock a bargain? So why is Amazon stock so cheap?
When a company is as big as Amazon, or any of the mega-cap companies, the market sees a cap on growth. Although Amazon is growing by double digits, it's not the same kind of astronomical growth as a young upstart. So while there's a long opportunity ahead, it's going to come more slowly and more steadily. That's the only reason I can think of for why Amazon stock looks so cheap today.
Investors should keep that in mind when considering Amazon stock. The company can still outperform the market and create shareholder value, but it's not going to deliver the same life-changing wealth it did in the past.
Alphabet (GOOG +1.05%) (GOOGL +1.22%) and Amazon (AMZN -0.57%) look cheaper than the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.43%) at face value. Right now, Alphabet and Amazon trade for 17 and 20.9 times earnings, respectively. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.43%) trades for 24.2 times earnings, making these two far cheaper than the broader market.
Considering that Alphabet and Amazon are two of the most popular big tech stocks available and both are growing at an incredible pace, this difference seems odd. So, what gives? Are these two actually screaming values begging to be bought, or is there something else going on here? Let's take a look.
Image source: Getty Images.
Alphabet and Amazon each have one-time effects skewing their earnings The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is the most popular tool investors use to value stocks, but it is far from perfect. Earnings per share (EPS) can be skewed in a variety of ways, and some of them are completely out of the company's control. One way this happens is thanks to gains on investments.
Both Alphabet and Amazon have extensive investment portfolios, and each has seen their holdings dramatically rise in value this year. Both Amazon and Alphabet are major investors in Anthropic, the AI firm whose flagship model is Claude. Anthropic is expected to go public in the near future, with reports circling that it's targeting a $2 trillion valuation. However, Amazon and Alphabet's reported gains are based on Anthropic's latest funding round, which saw the firm valued at $965 billion at the end of May.
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Even though neither Amazon nor Alphabet sold their stake in Anthropic, generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) require them to report the gain as an increase in earnings. This causes the EPS metric to rise without them selling, thus skewing Amazon and Alphabet's P/E ratio.
Alphabet also had another investment produce a huge gain, as Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, generated a massive gain for Alphabet during its second quarter. In fact, Alphabet produced $98 billion in "other income" during Q2, mostly from the gains it has on paper from Anthropic and SpaceX's rise.
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This explains why Alphabet and Amazon look so cheap, but are they actually cheap?
Amazon and Alphabet are still solid deals. There are a handful of ways to value these stocks that don't include the one-off effects from gains on investments. One way is to look at earnings projections for the next fiscal year. These projections don't include any gains on investments, because those are impossible to forecast. Instead, they just utilize where analysts think the company's primary businesses will go, and both Amazon and Alphabet are still valued at reasonable levels from this perspective.
GOOG PE Ratio (Forward 1y) data by YCharts
With Amazon trading at 25 times next year's earnings and Alphabet at 23 times next year's earnings, the premium investors have to pay for these two stocks is familiar. But these prices are still fairly reasonable to pay considering the leading role these two play in the AI arms race. Both of these companies are major cloud computing providers and are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out computing capacity for AI firms to utilize. This is leading to massive growth rates for both companies, and each is growing at its fastest pace in years as a result.
GOOG Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts
Both Amazon and Alphabet are long-term beneficiaries of this trend, and I think they will be incredible investments over the next decade. With each stock still trading at a reasonable valuation, yet their growth rates accelerating due to huge growth, now is the perfect time to buy.
Over a 40+ year career on Wall Street, David Tepper has built a fortune estimated at $23.7 billion, mainly by making aggressive, concentrated wagers. First, he focused on the distressed debt market, building his Appaloosa Management into one of the largest and most successful hedge funds and earning him billions in the process.
Now, Appaloosa primarily manages Tepper's personal fortune. Instead of distressed debt, Tepper now mainly invests in large-cap tech stocks, most notably Amazon (AMZN -0.57%). According to Appaloosa's latest 13-F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tepper has around 16% of his nearly $7.5 billion stock portfolio invested in this "Magnificent Seven" stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
Tepper puts in more money as Amazon climbs on AI growth During the quarter ending June 30, Tepper's Appaloosa increased its position in Amazon by 680,000 shares, or just under 15.8%. During this same time frame, Appaloosa reduced its Micron position by 41.4% and exited its Sandisk position entirely. The fund also increased its positions in Alphabet and Meta Platforms by 6.7% and 54.6%, respectively.
This strongly suggests a cycling out of "pick-and-shovel" artificial intelligence (AI) plays, into hyperscaler stocks. Tepper's fund may have made an aggressive pivot toward Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, but given that Meta accounts for only 5.1% of the overall portfolio, Amazon seems to remain the investor's highest-conviction bet on the AI growth trend.
Since the end of Q2, Amazon shares have continued to climb, most notably following the company's latest quarterly earnings report on July 30.
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The market reacted bullishly to better-than-expected revenue growth numbers for Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing unit. Thanks to the AI infrastructure boom, AWS reported 37% revenue growth in the quarter, handily beating forecasts. Because of the strong growth, investors also reacted positively to CEO Andy Jassy's announcement that Amazon would increase its 2026 capital expenditure budget from $200 billion to $220 billion.
The best move for investors While Tepper was still increasing Appaloosa's Amazon stake during Q2, it's unclear whether he's buying or selling right now since an SEC filing isn't due until the quarter is over. However, there's more to the bull case than "David Tepper likely still owns it." Buying Amazon represents a big bet on the continuation of the AI infrastructure build-out.
Based on last quarter's results, Amazon's heavy infrastructure investments are producing tangible growth. At 22 times earnings estimates, Amazon stock trades at a slight premium to its "Magnificent Seven" peers . For instance, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft currently trade at forward earnings multiples in the high-teens and low-20s.
However, a continued AI-driven growth resurgence for AWS could really pay off for investors who stay bullish. First, shares could keep rising in tandem with further earnings growth. Second, if strong results from Amazon, as well as other hyperscalers, emerge, AI stocks could surge, on the results themselves as well as due to improved sentiment for the sector.
That said, be mindful of the potential impact on shares of the AI bubble bursting. With the company's minority stake in AI start-up Anthropic further exposing it to the AI trend, this stock could get hammered back.
Amazon (AMZN -0.57%) isn't the company some people think it is. While some assume it's just an e-commerce giant, others are beginning to realize it's also a major player in the artificial intelligence (AI) computing space. Where it is making inroads here is by entering the semiconductor chipset market.
To compete effectively in this segment of AI, companies are realizing they need to offer custom chips, and Amazon believes it has the potential to do so. Amazon's chip business just crossed a crucial threshold: A $25 billion annual run rate. This is a big deal, as it shows that Amazon's custom chips are catching on with clients.
I think this is a bigger deal than the market gives Amazon credit for, and that lag in understanding makes the stock a great investment opportunity right now.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Custom chips will drive massive future growth The cloud computing business started out relatively simply: A company builds computing power to run its operations, creates too much and decides to rent it out to clients to recoup its costs and perhaps generate a profit. Amazon is one of several companies to do this, and it has done it so well that it has turned it into a huge, profitable business segment.
What computing units a company offers can make a big difference in attracting clients. The current industry standard for AI computing is GPUs from Nvidia. Amazon has a ton of Nvidia hardware in its data centers ready to rent. However, GPUs aren't purpose-built for a particular workload. Instead, they are general-purpose workhorses that perform well but could perform better if customized. Furthermore, they aren't cheap, and the cost of purchasing and renting them is quite high.
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To resolve this inefficiency, some companies are looking at using purpose-built computing units for their AI workloads. Alphabet was one of the first to bring these custom chips to market, and its tensor processing unit (TPU) chipsets are a great example of a custom chip that can deliver results comparable to a GPU at a lower price point. Amazon wants in on that business, so it started offering custom AI chips as well. This business is growing at a triple-digit rate, which is what's pushing up its annual run rate.
Amazon management noted in its most recent shareholder letter that its Trainium2 AI chips offer about a 30% better price-performance than GPUs. It also noted that the product's popularity has helped it sell out capacity. Trainium3, which became available at the start of 2026, sold out a few months ago, and Trainium4 chips, which launch in 2027 or 2028, have also had a large chunk of capacity reserved. There's clearly huge demand for Amazon's custom AI chips, and that will make Amazon Web Services (AWS) a go-to place to build and train AI models.
I think that makes Amazon a smart investment pick in this field, as it's clearly building a strong custom AI chip business that could grow in momentum as AI firms look to optimize their compute spending. Amazon and AWS will cash in regardless of what the trend is, making it a strong stock to consider buying now.
Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
This week on the GeekWire Podcast: Amazon’s delivery drones are going national, nearly 13 years after Jeff Bezos unveiled them on 60 Minutes. We listen back and discuss what’s next.
Plus: We go inside Anduril’s unmarked Bellevue office as the defense company builds toward 1,000 Seattle-area engineers; a reporter hides an AirTag in a rare book and tracks it to a secret Amazon book-scanning facility in Las Vegas; and an Anduril-themed trivia challenge.
Audio editing and production by Curt Milton.
Related stories and links Mentioned at the top
Want to know what Jeff Bezos brings to Liverpool FC? Study Amazon’s Leadership Principles Amazon drone delivery
Amazon drone delivery set to expand nationally, reaching nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns this year Amazon’s big surprise: Working on autonomous flying delivery drones — GeekWire, December 2013 Jeff Bezos unveils the Prime Air prototype on 60 Minutes — YouTube Amazon Prime Air drone delivery expansion — Amazon Andy Jassy’s 2025 letter to shareholders — Amazon Walmart, Wing expand drone delivery coverage — Supply Chain Dive The AirTag and the book-scanning facility
How an AirTag planted by a reporter led to a secret Amazon site where old books are cut apart and scanned We tracked a shipment of rare books. It ended at an Amazon AI training facility — 404 Media AI companies are buying tons of old books because they’re free of AI slop — 404 Media Trash Transparency Project — Basel Action Network America’s e-waste: a GPS tracker tells all — PBS NewsHour Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5B to settle lawsuit with book authors — Associated Press Anduril in the Seattle region
Inside Anduril’s AI warfighting buildup: Defense giant sees a path to 1,000 Seattle-area engineers Anduril exits Seattle shipyard following canceled Navy program and omission from new warship list Defense tech giant Anduril eyes new funding at $100B valuation as Seattle expansion draws protests — GeekWire, July 2026 AI weapons under scrutiny as activists plan weekend protest at Anduril’s Seattle office — GeekWire, July 2026 Anduril lands $5B as defense giant builds autonomous warship operation in Seattle — GeekWire, May 2026 Defense giant Anduril is quietly building autonomous warships on Seattle’s historic ship canal — GeekWire, April 2026 Military tech giant Anduril lands in Bellevue, doubling footprint in Seattle region — GeekWire, July 2025 Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Allied Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 19,030 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock, valued at approximately $4,636,000. Amazon.com makes up about 3.0% of Allied Private Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMZN. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. boosted its stake in Amazon.com by 12.1% in the second quarter. IFC & Insurance Marketing Inc. now owns 2,700 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $644,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares during the last quarter. Corepath Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Corepath Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,747 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $426,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com by 106,472.0% during the 2nd quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. now owns 26,643 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $6,352,000 after purchasing an additional 26,618 shares during the last quarter. Great Waters Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. Great Waters Wealth Management now owns 7,280 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,735,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Science Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Amazon.com by 40.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Science Advisors LLC now owns 17,319 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $4,128,000 after purchasing an additional 4,998 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.20% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Stock Down 0.6% AMZN opened at $258.63 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $249.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $239.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 trillion, a P/E ratio of 20.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Amazon.com, Inc. has a one year low of $196.00 and a one year high of $287.20.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The company had revenue of $200.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $197.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Insider Buying and Selling In other Amazon.com news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.76, for a total value of $982,985.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 467,138 shares in the company, valued at $122,745,180.88. This represents a 0.79% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 6,741 shares of company stock worth $1,767,335 in the last three months. 8.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Benchmark increased their price objective on Amazon.com from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research upgraded Amazon.com from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $335.00 price target (up from $330.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $320.00 price objective (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $322.39.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on AMZN
Key Headlines Impacting Amazon.com Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: AI and AWS remain the main bullish catalysts: Amazon is part of a group of major technology companies expected to spend approximately $615 billion on AI infrastructure this year. AWS growth, a reported $496 billion backlog and an AI annualized revenue run rate above $25 billion reinforce the view that Amazon’s capital spending could translate into stronger long-term cloud revenue. AI infrastructure spending article Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is strong: Rosenblatt initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $335 price target. The broader analyst consensus remains Moderately Buy, with an average target of about $322.56, suggesting substantial potential upside if AWS growth and margins improve. Rosenblatt coverage report Positive Sentiment: New growth initiatives could expand Amazon’s ecosystem: Prime Video plans to invest more than $2 billion in Latin America from 2027 through 2030, while the company is targeting drone delivery in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns. Amazon also selected Austin for a multibillion-dollar robotics facility expected to create up to 500 jobs. Prime Video Latin America investment Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic investment offers both strategic value and valuation uncertainty: Amazon’s stake in the AI startup could become highly valuable if reported IPO valuations hold, and Anthropic supports AWS demand. However, some analysts question whether the private company’s potential valuation is justified by its current revenue and cash generation. Anthropic valuation analysis Negative Sentiment: Investors are concerned about spending and near-term returns: The $2 billion Prime Video expansion adds to Amazon’s investment burden, while the market is focusing more on underlying cash generation than gains related to the rising value of Anthropic. Amazon Prime Video investment analysis Negative Sentiment: Competitive and execution risks remain: SpaceX’s Starlink has more than 11,000 satellites compared with Amazon Leo’s fewer than 1,000, highlighting a significant gap in the satellite broadband race. Drone deliveries also face regulatory, noise, safety and reliability hurdles, including recent delivery mishaps. Starlink and Amazon Leo comparison Amazon.com Profile (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Blueprint for a Boom: SEC Clears the Crypto Runway Ross Stores Just Flipped the Off-Price Retail Story After TJX’s Marmaxx Miss Advance Auto Parts Plunged, But Its Turnaround Is Still Working Is Palo Alto Networks Priced for Perfection Again as AI Security Demand Accelerates?
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AFG Fiduciary Services Limited Partnership reduced its stake in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) by 99.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,946 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after selling 1,800,445 shares during the quarter. Amazon.com makes up 3.0% of AFG Fiduciary Services Limited Partnership’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. AFG Fiduciary Services Limited Partnership’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $3,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Amazon.com by 2.3% in the first quarter. Red Crane Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Amazon.com by 0.7% during the first quarter. Robinson Smith Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Sfam LLC grew its position in Amazon.com by 3.4% during the first quarter. Sfam LLC now owns 1,224 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. increased its stake in Amazon.com by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. now owns 1,206 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $251,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CoreFirst Bank & Trust increased its stake in Amazon.com by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. CoreFirst Bank & Trust now owns 3,620 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock worth $754,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. 72.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AMZN. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $320.00 price target (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Amazon.com from $335.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Amazon.com from $330.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $320.00 target price (up from $315.00) on shares of Amazon.com in a research note on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifty-six have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Amazon.com presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $322.39.
Check Out Our Latest Analysis on AMZN Amazon.com News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting Amazon.com this week:
Positive Sentiment: AI and AWS remain the main bullish catalysts: Amazon is part of a group of major technology companies expected to spend approximately $615 billion on AI infrastructure this year. AWS growth, a reported $496 billion backlog and an AI annualized revenue run rate above $25 billion reinforce the view that Amazon’s capital spending could translate into stronger long-term cloud revenue. AI infrastructure spending article Positive Sentiment: Analyst support is strong: Rosenblatt initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $335 price target. The broader analyst consensus remains Moderately Buy, with an average target of about $322.56, suggesting substantial potential upside if AWS growth and margins improve. Rosenblatt coverage report Positive Sentiment: New growth initiatives could expand Amazon’s ecosystem: Prime Video plans to invest more than $2 billion in Latin America from 2027 through 2030, while the company is targeting drone delivery in nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns. Amazon also selected Austin for a multibillion-dollar robotics facility expected to create up to 500 jobs. Prime Video Latin America investment Neutral Sentiment: Anthropic investment offers both strategic value and valuation uncertainty: Amazon’s stake in the AI startup could become highly valuable if reported IPO valuations hold, and Anthropic supports AWS demand. However, some analysts question whether the private company’s potential valuation is justified by its current revenue and cash generation. Anthropic valuation analysis Negative Sentiment: Investors are concerned about spending and near-term returns: The $2 billion Prime Video expansion adds to Amazon’s investment burden, while the market is focusing more on underlying cash generation than gains related to the rising value of Anthropic. Amazon Prime Video investment analysis Negative Sentiment: Competitive and execution risks remain: SpaceX’s Starlink has more than 11,000 satellites compared with Amazon Leo’s fewer than 1,000, highlighting a significant gap in the satellite broadband race. Drone deliveries also face regulatory, noise, safety and reliability hurdles, including recent delivery mishaps. Starlink and Amazon Leo comparison Insider Activity at Amazon.com In related news, CEO Douglas J. Herrington sold 3,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.76, for a total transaction of $982,985.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 467,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,745,180.88. This trade represents a 0.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 6,741 shares of company stock worth $1,767,335 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 8.90% of the company’s stock.
Amazon.com Price Performance AMZN stock opened at $258.63 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $249.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $239.34. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 52-week low of $196.00 and a 52-week high of $287.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 1.03.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The e-commerce giant reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $3.93. The business had revenue of $200.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.03 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 18.00% and a net margin of 17.44%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 8.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.
About Amazon.com (Free Report)
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon’s online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
See Also Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Blueprint for a Boom: SEC Clears the Crypto Runway Ross Stores Just Flipped the Off-Price Retail Story After TJX’s Marmaxx Miss Advance Auto Parts Plunged, But Its Turnaround Is Still Working Is Palo Alto Networks Priced for Perfection Again as AI Security Demand Accelerates?
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Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) trades at $259.39, well below where fundamentals suggest it should. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target is $343.50, implying 32.8% upside over the next 12 months. Our recommendation is buy, with a high (90%) confidence rating.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $259.39 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $343.50 Upside 32.8% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% Why Amazon Looks Historically Cheap Right Now Amazon is up 12.69% year to date and 16.22% over the past year, yet sits 1.89% below its 52-week high of $287.20.
Q2 FY26 revenue hit $200.6 billion, up 19.62%, with operating income up 43.24% to $27.46 billion. AWS grew 37%, the fastest in 18 quarters, with a $496 billion backlog. Advertising jumped 26%. At a trailing P/E of 21 and forward P/E of 23, Amazon trades closer to a mature retailer than a business with AWS growing at this pace.
Why Bulls See a Breakout Ahead The bull case rests on AWS operating leverage now visible in the numbers. AWS margins hit 39.4% in Q2, and majority of 2027 AI capacity is already reserved. Andy Jassy told investors “we long believed AWS could become a few hundred billion dollar revenue business and now believe it will be at least double that and very possibly be a trillion dollar annual revenue business.”
Advertising runs at over $70 billion TTM, and Amazon’s chips business already exceeds a $25 billion annual run rate growing triple digits. Our model’s bull case lands at $393.98, a 52.32% total return if AWS keeps accelerating.
What Could Go Wrong The bear case centers on capex. Amazon guides to roughly $200 billion in 2026 capital spending, and TTM free cash flow turned negative at -$7.6 billion. Long-term debt has climbed to $119.1 billion from $65.6 billion. Reported GAAP EPS has been flattered by $53.4 billion in non-operating gains tied to Anthropic. Q3 faces an 80 basis point FX headwind.
Management notes servers reach break-even in under three years and data centers can be monetized for 30-plus years, so the free cash flow air pocket reflects investment timing, not broken economics. Our bear case still lands at $293.37, a 13.42% gain.
How Amazon Compares to Microsoft and Alphabet Against hyperscaler peers, Amazon’s multiple looks most compressed. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) competes via Azure, but Azure growth trails AWS’s 37% pace this quarter, and Microsoft trades at a materially richer forward multiple than Amazon’s 23x.
Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) mirrors the ads-plus-cloud combination and typically trades in the low-20s forward, giving Amazon almost no premium despite carrying the fastest-growing hyperscaler. On that basis, the 24/7 Wall St. price target of $343.50 looks conservative.
Amazon Price Prediction 2026-2030 The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $343.50 with a buy rating and 90% confidence reflects a stock where the multiple has compressed while operating income accelerates.
The thesis strengthens if AWS holds growth above 30% into Q4. It weakens if capex guidance for 2027 lurches materially higher without a matching backlog signal. On today’s numbers, this looks like a rare setup in the mega-caps.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $279.80 2027 $370.96 2028 $412.77 2029 $490.48 2030 $535.00 These projections assume Amazon executes on AWS capacity expansion and advertising monetization. Significant upside or downside could result from AI infrastructure returns and 2026-2027 free cash flow recovery.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
