Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is experiencing a dramatic business revival, with second-quarter revenue growth hitting 20%, its fastest pace in five years.
The acceleration marks a sharp turnaround from the post-pandemic slowdown, when revenue growth fell as low as 7% in Q1 2022 as both e-commerce and cloud momentum stalled.
Amazon Web Services was the standout performer in the quarter, posting 37% revenue growth to reach $42.2 billion, its fastest expansion since 2021.
The surge in AWS growth is being driven by explosive demand for AI compute, with peers like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud also reporting accelerating cloud revenue across the industry.
Amazon has committed approximately $200 billion in capital expenditures, much of which is directed toward data centers to support AWS and AI infrastructure buildout.
North America sales rose 16% to $116.2 billion, benefiting in part from the shift of Prime Day into the second quarter, which lifted overall revenue growth by roughly 400 basis points.
International revenue grew 15% to $42.2 billion, its fastest pace since Q1 2021, as investments in newer markets began to deliver meaningful returns.
Advertising revenue accelerated to 26% growth, its strongest pace since 2023, a particularly encouraging signal given that advertising carries high margins for the company.
Operating income jumped 43% to $27.5 billion in the quarter, demonstrating significant operating leverage as the business scales across its major segments.
Amazon stock surged 15% the day after its earnings report and added another 5% the following session to reach an all-time high, before giving back nearly all of those gains amid rising interest rates and broader macro concerns.
Management guided for third-quarter revenue growth of 9% to 12%, or 13% to 16% when adjusted for the Prime Day calendar shift, though Amazon’s guidance has historically tended toward the conservative side.
With its valuation now trading at a price-to-earnings ratio comparable to the broader S&P 500, Amazon’s diversified exposure across e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital advertising makes the stock appear attractively priced given its growth trajectory.
