In the third quarter ended September 30, net sales at Amazon rose 13%, to $180.2 billion, and net income rose 39%, to $21.2 billion. Sales in North America rose 11%, to $106.3 billion, and international sales rose 14%, to $40.9 billion. (Excluding favorable foreign exchange rates, international sales rose 10%.) Sales at AWS, Amazon's cloud services division, rose 20%, to $33 billion.
The increase in AWS sales, after several years of lower rates of growth, cheered Wall Street. On Friday, Amazon stock rose 10.9%, to $244.22 a share, an all-time high.
Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy emphasized that AWS has been growing "at a pace we haven't seen since 2022, re-accelerating." He added, too, that the company is benefiting from AI both in how it's used internally at Amazon and in its offerings. AI "drives meaningful improvements in every corner of our business," he said. (Only days before its report, Amazon announced it is cutting 14,000 executive-level jobs, and may cut as many as 30,000 in all.)
In addition, Jassy stated, "In stores, we continue to realize the benefits of innovating in our fulfillment network, and we're on track to deliver to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever again this year, expand same-day delivery of perishable groceries to over 2,300 communities by end of year, and double the number of rural communities with access to Amazon's same-day and next-day delivery."
The company estimated that net sales in the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday season, should grow between 10% and 13% to between $206 billion and $213 billion. Operating income should be between $21 billion and $26 billion compared to $21.2 billion in the same period last year.