Amazon’s value tops $3 trillion amid artificial intelligence boom
Amazon shares had the biggest one-day jump last week, since April 2012, after the group expanded into cloud computing services and raised its annual capital spending forecast
Amazon's stock value topped $3 trillion after strong earnings amid an artificial intelligence boom driving fresh demand.
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The Nasdaq constituent has become the fifth company to reach $3 trillion (approx. £2.23 trillion) alongside Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Alphabet, which owns Google.
Amazon shares had the biggest one-day jump last week, since April 2012, after the group expanded into cloud computing services and raised its annual capital spending forecast.
“Amazon is probably the most emblematic of the economy right now. It’s a consumer story and it’s an AI story,” Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide, the US financial services group, told The Times.
“The big scepticism coming into earnings season was if they [hyperscalers] were turning the spigot down on spending on AI. We did not get that from Amazon and Microsoft and that has unleashed a much broader all-clear for the market.”
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Shares in the company closed up $12.44, or 5 per cent, at $284.02 in New York on Monday night - a new record high.
They have risen 23.05 per cent since the start of the year and had their best 72-hour stretch since three days in October 2009, when they rose 30.6 per cent.
Amazon still has some way to go to catch Apple's value at $4.5 trillion - which briefly topped $5 trillion last week. Nvidia, the AI chip maker, was valued at $5 trillion, and Microsoft at $3.6 trillion.
Andy Jassy, chief executive, and CEO at Amazon described the "record" figures: "Our AI and chips businesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion.
"In stores, we again set record delivery speeds for Prime members in the first half of the year - over 40 per cent more items delivered same-day or overnight, with grocery and everyday essentials growing meaningfully faster than the rest of the business."