Amazon cloud unit beats on revenue and profit as parent company ramps up AI spending

Amazon said Thursday that revenue from its cloud unit increased almost 24% in the fourth quarter, topping analysts’ estimates.

Amazon Web Services generated $35.58 billion in revenue, according to a statement. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected $34.93 billion. AWS represented about 17% of Amazon’s total revenue for the quarter.

Operating income within AWS came to $12.47 billion, more than StreetAccount’s $11.91 billion consensus, accounting for most of its parent company’s profits. AWS’ operating margin widened slightly to 35% from 34.6% in the third quarter.

Amazon leads the cloud infrastructure market, which its introduced almost 20 years ago, but Google and Microsoft have rapidly growing businesses in the space and, according to many analysts, are seeing stronger growth from artificial intelligence…