In the fourth quarter ended December 31, net sales at Amazon rose 10%, to $187.8 billion, and net income nearly doubled, to $20 billion, compared to $10.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. For the full year, net sales rose 11%, to $638 billion, and net income also nearly doubled, to $59.2 billion, compared to 2023.
In the fourth quarter, North American sales rose 10%, to $115.6 billion, while international sales were up 8%, to $43.4 billion. Sales at AWS, Amazon's cloud operations, which are the most profitable part of the company, rose 19%, to $28.8 billion.
Like other tech companies, Amazon is investing heavily in AI and said it will spend $100 billion on the effort this year. It also warned that sales would slow somewhat this year, forecasting that first quarter 2025 sales will grow 5%-9%, to between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, and operating income will be between $14 billion and $18 billion, compared to $15.3 billion in the same period of 2024.
Although fourth-quarter earnings were above analysts' expectations, AWS sales and first-quarter forecasts came in below what analysts predicted. As a result, in after-hours trading yesterday, Amazon stock slipped about 4%.