Amazon Q4 Earnings Reveal ‘Successful’ Holiday Shopping Season, Continues AI Investments

Amazon profits were better than expected in the fourth quarter. For the three-month period that ended in December, revenue for the company reached $187.8 billion, a 10% surge year over year. While Wall Street predicted $1.49, according to AP News, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $1.86 on $20 billion of profit.

From its retail site alone, Amazon reported $75.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter, which included the 2024 holiday shopping season. The figure represents a 7% increase over the same period in 2023.

“The holiday shopping season was the most successful yet for Amazon and we appreciate the support of our customers, selling partners, and employees who helped make it so,” said CEO Andy Jassy, per Deadline.

In the first quarter of 2025, Amazon predicts revenue between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, a 5%-9% uptick compared to Q1 2024. However, analysts are even more optimistic, anticipating revenue to come in around $158.56 billion.

Amazon Commits to a Future With AI

Just like other tech giants, Amazon is rushing to get ahead in the generative AI technology race. The company committed $26.3 billion in capital expenditures in the last quarter, with the funds primarily focused on developing AI and its AWS cloud services.

“We think virtually every application that we know of today is going to be re-invented with AI inside of it,” said Jassy, per AP News.

The e-commerce retailer has been busy expanding data centers that support AI and cloud services. In addition to investing in the development of its own AI chips, Amazon has been buying NVIDIA chips as well.

By the end of 2024, the company invested $8 billion into AI startup Anthropic. The deal lets Anthropic use AWS’s Trainium and Inferentia chips for AI training. AWS will also remain Anthropic’s primary cloud service provider.

It’s apparent that AI plays a crucial role in Amazon’s future strategy. The company has been rolling out various AI integrations across its services, including an AI assistant named Rufus on its retail site. On a recent conference call, Jassy told investors that Amazon leadership was “impressed” with Chinese AI startup DeepSeek and doesn’t want to get left behind in the technological dust.