AI boom: Amazon said revenues hit £115bn in the first three months of 2024
Amazon raked in sales of £1.25billion a day at the start of the year as it cashed in on demand for artificial intelligence technology.
The company said revenues hit £115billion in the first three months of 2024. That was up 13 per cent on the first quarter last year and a record for the period. Profits surged to £8.3billion from £2.6billion a year earlier.
It has focused its AI efforts into cloud business AWS, including investing in safety and research start-up, Anthropic.
Sales for AWS were up 17 per cent year-over-year to £20billion – matching strong boosts at Microsoft and Alphabet’s cloud divisions.
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said: ‘It was a good start to the year across the business, and you can see that in both our customer experience improvements and financial results.’
Amazon has been in fierce competition with the likes of Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft to plough cash into artificial intelligence.
Jassy has previously said its generative AI services could drive tens of billions of dollars in revenue in the coming years.
The rise in sales in the first quarter follows a jump to £451billion in 2023 from £403billion in 2022.