(Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Amazon shares drop after soft revenue forecast, but cloud grows

CEO Andy Jassy told analysts that “consumers are being careful on prices.”

8/1/24 6:42PM

Amazon shares took a hit Thursday after hours, dropping 7.6% after the company reported a slight revenue miss and gave sales guidance that was weaker than analysts were expecting.

If that stock decline holds during regular trading Friday, it would knock roughly $130 billion off Amazon’s market cap. The revenue miss was largely a result of sluggish growth in Amazon’s core retail business, which faces competition from Chinese e-commerce companies sending cheaper goods to North American consumers.

“Consumers are being careful on prices,” CEO Andy Jassy said during the earnings call. That led to lower average selling prices, which weighed on sales. The growth rate of units sold in North America outpaced that of sales, meaning a selection of cheaper goods were appealing to consumers.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s big spending on data centers and AI seems to be bearing fruit. Amazon Web Services sales increased 19% year-over-year to $26.3 billion, and the segment generated an operating profit of $9.3 billion, up from $5.4 billion a year earlier.

That helped Amazon to an overall profit of $13.5 billion in the quarter, up from $6.7 billion a year earlier.

Amazon said that customers are bringing both generative AI and non-AI workloads to the cloud.

The strength at AWS it came after Microsoft reported disappointing growth in its Azure cloud-computing business earlier this week. Like other tech companies this season, Amazon had to assure investors it isn’t over investing in AI.

“The reality right now is that while we are investing a significant amount in the AI space and in infrastructure, we would like to have more capacity than we already have today,” Jassy said. “We have a lot of demand right now, and I think it's going to be a very, very large business for us.”

Jon Keegan2/6/26

Report: OpenAI may tailor a version of ChatGPT for UAE that prohibits LGBTQ+ content

In June of last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared in Abu Dhabi, UAE, alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to announce “Stargate UAE,” a project that includes a 1-gigawatt AI data center in Abu Dhabi, and a commitment to invest in the Stargate USA project.

OpenAI has announced that it is interested in jumping on the “sovereign AI” train, helping countries roll out their own AI services that reflect their own language, culture, and version of history.

Today, Semafor is reporting that OpenAI is in talks to develop a tailored version of ChatGPT for the UAE that would align with the kingdom’s conservative social laws and speech restrictions, such as disallowing discussion of LGBTQ+ content. The UAE-owned MGX investment firm is an investor in OpenAI.

The company announced its OpenAI for Countries initiative in May of last year, which aims to “help interested governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the U.S. government — rooted in democratic values, open markets, and trusted partnerships.”

The UAE is a monarchy with a history of human rights violations.

OpenAI’s plan for “democratic AI”

The UAE is a monarchy with a history of human rights violations.

Allen & Co Brings Together Media And Tech Titans In Sun Valley

Analysts think Amazon’s sky-high capex is a good thing, even if there’s “shock value” for investors

That said, several analysts also lowered their price targets for Amazon the day after its downbeat earnings report.

Rani Molla2/6/26

Jon Keegan2/6/26

Big Tech’s $1.1 trillion cloud computing backlog

Now that the big dogs of cloud computing have all reported their quarterly earnings, we can step back and get a sense of the searing demand that AI is driving toward their businesses.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft each reported hundreds of billions in RPO (remaining performance obligations) — signed contracts for cloud computing services that can’t yet be filled and haven’t yet hit the books.

Collectively, the big three cloud providers reported a $1.1 TRILLION backlog of revenue.

This gargantuan demand could be good news for the “neoscalers” like CoreWeave and Nebius. But even CoreWeave is reporting a substantial backlog of its own — $55 billion last quarter.

Rani Molla

Apple of another’s AI

2/6/26

Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter

One of these companies is not like the others.

Apple Headquarters in Cupertino of California

Rani Molla2/6/26

Big Tech capital expenditure soared in 2025. It’s going up another 50% in 2026.

Last quarter was one for the record books when it came to Big Tech’s purchases of property and equipment. Combined, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta spent nearly $400 billion on capex, sans leases, in total last year, mostly in service of building out the AI infrastructure that they hope will furnish their futures.

And 2026 is only getting more expensive.

The four are expected to spend 50% more in 2026 than in 2025: roughly $600 billion. Amazon said it’s on the hook for $200 billion in capex this year, while Google expects to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion. Not too far behind, Meta estimated its 2026 capex would be $115 billion to $135 billion. Microsoft didn’t give an estimate, but analysts have its 2026 calendar year capex at around $114 billion. However, it should be noted that analysts’ expectations for 2026 were way lower than the reality for the rest.