Amazon sets ambitious Q3 forecasts; AI at the 'heart of what we do'
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Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) forecast net sales to be between $138B and $143B for the third quarter, up 9% and 13%, respectively, compared with the third quarter of 2022.
Operating income is expected at $5.5B to $8.5B compared with $2.5B a year earlier, the company said in its quarterly report.
So far this year, Amazon said it has delivered more than 1.8 billion units to U.S. Prime members the same or next day â nearly four times the number of units delivered at those speeds by this point in 2019.
During the second quarter, AMZN delivered its largest selection of products to U.S. Prime members at the fastest speeds ever.
For AWS, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on an earnings call that the business is stabilizing and cost optimizations are moderating, while second quarter trends are continuing into July.
On AWS, âI am bullish about it in the medium to long-term, for sure,â Olsavsky said.
Asked about the role of generative AI at Amazon, Olsavsky said every single business has some degree of generative AI involved. âIt is going to be at the heart of what we do,â he said.
The results
For the second quarter, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant reported net sales increased 11% to $134.4B, compared with $121.2B in the second quarter of 2022.
The cloud business was better than expected as AWS revenue came in at $22.14B vs. $21.74B consensus.
Net income was $6.7B, or $0.65 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2B, or $0.20 per diluted share, a year earlier.
Operating income was reported at $7.68B in comparison to the consensus mark of $4.717B and the company's guidance range of $2B to $5.5B.
Shares of Amazon (AMZN) rose 7% in after-hours trading.
Amazon is up 50% so far in 2023.
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