New York (AP) — Amazon on Wednesday reported strong increases in profits and net sales during its fiscal first quarter, helped by surging growth in its prominent cloud computing unit.
The e-commerce and technology company said that sales in its cloud computing unit were up 28% in the January-March period, the fastest increase in 15 quarters. Amazon Web Services had 24% sales growth in the fourth quarter, which followed the division's 20% growth in the third quarter.
The Seattle-based company also offered a bullish outlook for net sales in the current quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates. However, shares slid nearly 2% in after-hours trading.
Investors were closely watching Amazon’s quarterly earnings to see if the company’s $200 billion investment in artificial intelligence, robots, semiconductors and satellites is starting to pay off. The planned expenditure for the year marked a 60% increase from Amazon’s $128 billion in capital spending last year and spooked investors, sending the stock down 11% in after-hours trading when it was announced in February.
CEO Andy Jassy defended the spending during the previous quarterly earnings call, saying Amazon expected long-term returns on its invested capital.
The results from the latest quarter underscored that demand keeps growing for Amazon's services and technology.
“We’re in the middle of some of the biggest inflections of our lifetime, we’re well positioned to lead, and I’m very optimistic about what’s ahead for our customers and Amazon,” Jassy said in a release Wednesday.
Amazon came out with its first-quarter earnings the same day as three other tech giants — Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet — were reporting theirs, giving investors a read on AI spending and cloud growth across the industry.
Big deals that Amazon signed with OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta this month gave the company solid momentum.
Amazon announced what it called a “major expansion” of its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI on Tuesday, a day after the artificial intelligence company said it was loosening its ties to longtime backer Microsoft.
Last week, Anthropic agreed to commit more than $100 billion to Amazon’s AWS cloud platform over the next 10 years to train and run the artificial intelligence company’s Claude chatbot. The partnership will allow Anthropic to secure up to 5 gigawatts of Amazon’s Trainium chips to train and power their artificial intelligence models, Amazon said.
Also last week, Amazon said that Meta, which owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, signed an agreement to power agentic AI on AWS’ Graviton chips.
Like other retailers, however, Amazon is experiencing higher tariff costs because of President Donald Trump’s foreign trade policies. Rising shipping costs as the Iran war affects oil and fuel prices also could cut into the company's e-commerce revenue.
Amazon this month said it would impose a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on some third-party sellers using its platform. The temporary charge was effective April 17 for many of the sellers that use Amazon’s fulfillment services, the company confirmed to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Amazon has been speeding up order delivery times through a combination of robotics, AI technology and more efficient warehousing.
A new ultra-fast service called Amazon Now offers deliveries of orders from a selection of thousands of items in 30 minutes or less. The service is now available in various cities in India, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates and is being tested in several communities in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the company said in February.
Amazon reported earnings of $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share, for the three-month period ended March 31. That compared with $17.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, in the year-ago period.
Net sales rose 17% to $181.5 billion in the quarter, compared with $155.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts were expecting $1.63 per share on sales of $177.28 billion, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue from Amazon Web Services reached $37.58 billion. Analysts were expecting $36.6 billion, according to FactSet.
For the current quarter, Amazon said it expected net sales will be in the range of $194 billion to $199 billion.
That would mean an increase of between 16% to 19% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts were expecting $188.96 billion in the current period, according to FactSet.
Denise Dresser, chief revenue officer of OpenAI, second right, speaks on stage with Julia White, vice president & chief marketing officer, AWS, from left, Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, and Anthony Liguori, vice president and distinguished engineer, AWS, at a What's Next with AWS event, Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner and kill President Donald Trump took a picture of himself in his hotel room just minutes earlier, outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife, authorities said Wednesday in a new court filing.
Cole Allen wore black pants, a black shirt and a red tie as he snapped the image in his room at the Washington Hilton, where Trump and hundreds of journalists were meeting for a gala Saturday night, authorities say.
The 31-year-old from Torrance, California, was captured when he tried to race past security barricades near the hotel's ballroom, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents tasked with safeguarding the event, investigators say.
New details emerged in a court filing made by prosecutors who want Allen to remain in custody. A hearing is set for Thursday.
The government said Allen repeatedly made online checks to keep track of Trump’s status that night, including live coverage of the president exiting his vehicle at the Hilton hotel. Investigators said preset emails with an “Apology and Explanation” attachment were sent at approximately 8:30 p.m.
“He intended to kill and fired his shotgun while trying to breach security and attack his target. Put simply, the defendant poses an uncommonly serious danger to the community if released pending trial. The defendant’s lack of criminal history and other personal circumstances do not alter this conclusion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones wrote.
Trump, a Republican, was uninjured. A Secret Service officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest and survived.
Allen appeared in court on Monday and was charged with the attempted assassination of the president as authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks. Tezira Abe, a member of the defense team, said he “is presumed innocent at this time.”
Meanwhile, ahead of the Thursday hearing, a magistrate judge ordered a District of Columbia jail to allow Allen to have unrestricted visits with his lawyers. The attorneys complained that they hadn't been able to meet him privately.
“Mr. Allen was forced to sit inside of a locked cage in full, five-point restraints, and speak over a phone — of which there is only one — to be able to confer with counsel,” Abe and co-counsel Eugene Ohm said in a court filing. “Counsel were forced to sit in an open lobby area with jail staff and other attorneys standing nearby who could overhear the entirety of counsel’s side of the conversation.”
An FBI affidavit filed Monday revealed other details about the planning behind the hotel assault, with authorities alleging that Allen on April 6 reserved a room for himself at the Hilton where the event would be held weeks later under its typical tight security. He traveled by train cross-country from California, checking himself into the hotel a day before the dinner with a room reserved for the weekend.
Trump was rushed off the stage by his security team Saturday night and appeared at the White House two hours later, still in his tuxedo.
“When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” the president said. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”
This enhanced version of an image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows Cole Tomas Allen, inside his hotel room, on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington, using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows Cole Tomas Allen, left, inside his hotel room, on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington, using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows some of the weapons and shotgun ammunition that Cole Tomas Allen possessed, Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows Cole Tomas Allen, left, inside his hotel room, on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington, using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror. An enhanced version of the image is right. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice, April 29, 2026, shows Cole Tomas Allen, left, inside his hotel room, on Saturday, April 25, 2026 in Washington, using his cellphone to take a photograph of himself in the mirror. An enhanced version of the image is right. (Department of Justice via AP)
