Amazon CEO Jassy on tariffs: “It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen”

Amazon beat Wall Street estimates for revenue for the first quarter, but tariffs are making the future hazy, and revenue growth is slowing.

On last night’s earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said:

“It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen with tariffs right now. It’s hard to tell where they’re going to settle and when they’re going to settle.”

The company isn’t seeing any significant signs of selling prices shooting up or demand dropping so far, though that could change, Jassy said:

“We haven’t seen any attenuation of demand yet. To some extent, we’ve seen some heightened buying in certain categories that may indicate stocking up in advance of any potential tariff impact.”

Jassy made the case that in times of uncertainty (like the pandemic), retail shoppers turn to brands they can trust, and a recently survey showed that 80% of Americans would consider buying from Amazon.

Jassy said:

“Given our really broad selection, low pricing, and speedy delivery, we have emerged from these uncertain eras with more relative market segment share than we started and better set up for the future. I’m optimistic this could happen again.”

Some of the ways that Amazon execs on the call described the current moment:

“...external environment remains complex...”

“We’re closely monitoring the macroeconomic environment”

“...uncertain environments...”

“....periods of discontinuity...”

There were also some warning signs related to Amazon’s impressive revenue growth. Revenue for its North America unit grew 7.6%, the lowest year-on-year growth since Q1 2022. Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit, which has been a big growth area for the company, came in slightly below expectations with 17% growth.

Investors were disappointed with Amazon’s guidance for operating income for the current quarter. The FactSet analyst consensus was $17.62 billion, but the company offered a huge range from $13 billion up to $17.5 billion — entirely below expectations.