Amazon’s stock market valuation surpassed $2 trillion propelled by AI investments, with significant growth in share price and annual revenue, despite laying off employees to cut costs.
Amazon’s stock market valuation surpassed $2 trillion on Wednesday following a nearly 4% increase in share price. The Seattle-based e-commerce company’s stock has risen 52% over the past year, spurred by significant investments in artificial intelligence. Joining other tech giants such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, and Nvidia in the $2 trillion club, Amazon continues to bolster its AI capabilities, notably through its cloud computing unit AWS.
CEO Andy Jassy highlighted that AI innovations have renewed AWS growth, steering towards $100 billion in annual revenue. Concurrently, Amazon invested $4 billion in AI firm Anthropic and develops proprietary AI chips. Despite laying off over 27,000 corporate employees since late 2022 to cut costs, Amazon reported robust first-quarter revenue and profits, driven by AWS, retail, and advertising sectors.
Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives noted the significant impact of cloud and AI investments on Amazon’s valuation. Meanwhile, GlobalData Retail’s Neil Saunders mentioned investor optimism remains high despite potential external challenges, like the FTC’s antitrust lawsuit.
