Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) shares climbed sharply after the company reported second-quarter net sales of $200.6 billion, a 20% increase from $167.7 billion in the same period a year earlier. Foreign exchange fluctuations contributed just $0.1 billion to the total, leaving underlying growth essentially unchanged at the same rate. Amazon stock rose 3.90% to $235.50 during regular trading before gaining an additional 6.37% in after-hours activity to reach $250.49. The results reinforced Amazon's position as the largest cloud infrastructure provider by global market share, with AWS accelerating even as competitors Microsoft and Google also reported strong AI-driven cloud demand this earnings season.

Revenue Breakdown Across Segments

North American sales grew 16% to $116.2 billion during the quarter. International revenue increased 15% to $42.2 billion. AWS revenue matched the international segment at $42.2 billion but grew at a significantly faster pace of 37% year-over-year, marking its fastest growth in 18 quarters as enterprise demand strengthened. That pace also widened AWS's lead as the dominant player in cloud computing, a market where the top three providers — Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud — collectively control the majority of global infrastructure spending. Advertising revenue also advanced 26%, broadening Amazon's expansion beyond its core retail and cloud businesses and solidifying its standing as the third-largest digital advertising platform behind Google and Meta.

Operating income rose to $27.5 billion, up from $19.2 billion in the prior-year quarter. North American operating income reached $9.1 billion, while international operating income rose to $1.7 billion. AWS operating income climbed to $16.6 billion from $10.2 billion a year earlier, underscoring the segment's role as Amazon's primary profit engine despite representing roughly 21% of total revenue.

Anthropic Investment Gain Lifts Net Income

Amazon posted net income of $62.6 billion, compared with $18.2 billion one year ago. Diluted earnings per share reached $5.75, up from $1.68. A $53.4 billion pre-tax gain from investments, primarily attributable to Anthropic, was the principal driver behind the elevated quarterly result. The gain reflects a mark-to-market revaluation of Amazon's stake in the AI startup, in which the company has invested a cumulative $8 billion, and illustrates how equity holdings in private AI companies are increasingly influencing reported earnings at major technology firms.

Operating cash flow increased 33% to $161.4 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis. Free cash flow, however, shifted to a $7.6 billion outflow from an $18.2 billion inflow in the comparable prior-year period. Property and equipment purchases rose by $66.1 billion year-over-year, as Amazon directed significant capital toward data centers, cloud capacity, custom chips, and artificial intelligence services. These investments underpinned faster AWS growth but weighed on near-term free cash flow, mirroring a broader capex surge across hyperscale cloud providers committing tens of billions to AI infrastructure.

AWS Expansion and Chip Business Growth

AWS delivered its strongest growth in 18 quarters on the back of strengthening enterprise demand. The division's artificial intelligence business surpassed a $25 billion annual revenue run rate. Amazon's chip business also crossed the $25 billion annual run rate threshold, posting triple-digit growth, as the company pushed deeper into custom silicon to offer customers alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs and reduce its own dependency costs.

The company expanded adoption of its Trainium chips through commitments from Anthropic, OpenAI, startups, and major enterprises. Amazon also released Graviton5, which offers improved computing performance over the previous generation. Revenue commitments for Graviton nearly tripled compared with the prior quarter.

Beyond cloud and silicon, Amazon broadened its operations across fast delivery, business logistics, pharmacy, advertising, and streaming. Amazon Now added 80 U.S. cities and now serves more than 250 cities globally across nine countries. Amazon Business reached $60 billion in annualized gross sales while expanding its product selection for commercial customers.