Amazon shares jumped over 13% in pre-market trading on Friday following the company’s stellar third-quarter performance, signaling a strong return to the AI race.

Quarterly Highlights:

• Revenue: $180 billion, up 13% year-over-year, surpassing expectations.
• Net Profit: $21.2 billion, a 39% increase from the previous year.
• Margin Improvement: Both retail and cloud segments showed significant margin expansion.

AWS Leads the Charge:

• Growth: Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew 20% YoY, its fastest pace since 2022.
• AI Demand: Growth fueled by AI-related demand, including customers leveraging Bedrock AI platform and training large language models on AWS infrastructure.
• Competitive Edge: AWS now positions Amazon as a serious AI cloud player, alongside Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Looking Ahead – Q4 Projections:

• Revenue: Expected between $206 billion and $213 billion.
• Operating Profit: Forecasted between $21 billion and $26 billion.

Strategic Moves:

• Expansion of data center footprint for AI capabilities through a multi-year buildout.
• 14,000 white-collar job cuts, costing an estimated $1.8 billion, as part of restructuring to streamline operations.

Amazon’s strong performance comes just as the holiday shopping season ramps up, combining retail strength with AI-driven cloud growth for a potent Q4 outlook.