SEATTLE – Amazon posted better-than-expected revenue and earnings in the quarter ended March 31.
Net sales increased 13% from a year earlier to $143.3 billion. The company reported first-quarter net income of $10.4 billion, or 98 cents a diluted share, compared to $3.2 billion a year earlier.
Amazon’s operating income surged to $15.3 billion, up from $4.8 billion in the same quarter last year.
Sales at its North America segment increased 12% to $86.3 billion. International segment sales increased 10% (11% excluding foreign-exchange fluctuations) to $31.9 billion.
Amazon said its AWS cloud computing segment exceeded forecasts, with sales up 17% in the quarter to $25 billion. Demand for generative AI tools and services is boosting business for cloud providers.
Advertising revenue increased 24%, reflecting recent growth in retail media ad spending. The company sells advertising space to sellers on its marketplace. In January, Amazon introduced ad breaks to streaming content on its Prime Video service.
Amazon reported first-quarter revenue from subscription services, including Prime memberships, increased 11% to $10.7 billion.
Revenue at Amazon’s online stores increased 7% from a year ago to $54.6 billion. Revenue at physical stores, including Whole Foods Markets, grew 6% to $5.2 billion.
Revenue from third-party seller services also surged, with sales up 16% year over year to $34.5 billion.
Amazon foresees second-quarter sales of between $144 billion and $149 billion, and operating income in the range of $10 billion to $14 billion.
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