Amazon.com revealed that its AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud segment experienced a robust performance, reporting a 13 percent increase in sales to $24.2 billion during the fourth quarter of 2023. The AWS segment’s operating income also saw substantial growth, reaching $7.2 billion, compared to $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.
For the entire year 2023, AWS segment sales climbed by 13 percent, totaling $90.8 billion, with an operating income of $24.6 billion, up from $22.8 billion in 2022. Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, attributed these impressive results to AWS’s customer-centric focus, consistent feature delivery, and the integration of advanced AI capabilities such as Bedrock, Q, and Trainium.
Amazon said its capital expenses this year to increase to support growth of AWS including additional investments in generative AI and large language models, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on the conference call.
Amazon.com’s overall sales for the fourth quarter increased by 14 percent to $170 billion against $149.2 billion in the same period of 2022. The net income for the fourth quarter reached $10.6 billion. The North America segment sales increased by 13 percent to $105.5 billion, while the International segment sales surged by 17 percent to $40.2 billion.
Looking at the full-year results for 2023, Amazon.com’s total sales rose by 12 percent to $574.8 billion, compared to $514.0 billion in 2022. The net income for the year amounted to $30.4 billion.
In addition to financial success, Amazon’s AWS secured several notable deals in 2023:
Hyundai chose AWS as its preferred cloud provider for accelerating its digital transformation.
Amgen expanded its collaboration with AWS to leverage generative AI solutions for drug discovery and manufacturing.
Salesforce deepened its global partnership with AWS, making its products available on the AWS Marketplace.
Accor S.A. launched a generative AI Travel Assistant in collaboration with AWS to enhance guest experiences.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) signed a multiyear agreement with AWS for personalized financial services and generative AI exploration.
Merck partnered with AWS and Accenture to move a substantial portion of its IT infrastructure to AWS for drug discovery and manufacturing.
The Very Group expanded collaboration with AWS to launch a Gen AI Innovation Lab for retail solutions.
SAIC MOTOR selected AWS as its strategic cloud provider for its i-SMART connected vehicle platform.
Axiata Group chose AWS as its primary cloud provider for digital transformation across its operating companies.
Hyundai Oilbank partnered with AWS to transform its business and reduce IT costs by 20 percent.
LG AI Research launched an AI image-to-text captioning solution on AWS.
Cathay selected AWS as its cloud provider, reducing IT infrastructure costs by 40 percent.
BYD chose AWS as its preferred cloud provider to support its global business.
Moreover, Amazon announced the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, an independent cloud for Europe, aimed at providing public sector customers and those in highly regulated industries more choices to meet EU compliance mandates.
Additionally, AWS expanded its infrastructure footprint by launching the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, becoming the first major cloud services provider with an infrastructure Region in Western Canada. As of the end of 2023, AWS had 105 Availability Zones within 33 geographic Regions globally, with plans for 12 more Availability Zones and four more Regions in the pipeline.
