Amazon (AMZN) reported first quarter revenue and earnings per share that topped Wall Street estimates, with AWS posting its fastest growth in 15 quarters as the e-commerce giant continues its massive artificial intelligence build-out.
Amazon stock was down 0.8% in extended trading after initially rising following the report, then falling as much as 7% before recovering most of those losses.
The company reported earnings per share of $2.78, up from $1.59 a year ago. Revenue was $181.5 billion, up from $155.7 billion in the same quarter last year.
Analysts had expected earnings per share of $1.62 on revenue of $177.2 billion, according to Bloomberg consensus estimates.
Amazon’s all-important AWS cloud business generated $37.6 billion in revenue, ahead of estimates for $36.7 billion. AWS revenue excluding foreign exchange grew 28%, above expectations for 25.7% growth.
“AWS is growing 28% (our fastest growth in 15 quarters) on a very large base, our chips…