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Amazon Earnings Unpacked | Pivot

May 03, 2024 / 05:59

This episode discusses Amazon's Q1 earnings, focusing on revenue growth, profits, and the performance of AWS. Key topics include Amazon's investment in AI, the leadership of Andy Jassy, and the competitive landscape in cloud computing.

Amazon reported a 133% increase in revenue to $143 billion and a tripling of profits to $10.4 billion, exceeding Wall Street's expectations. The AWS unit saw a 177% revenue increase, with operating income rising to $9.4 billion.

Andy Jassy's leadership style and his transition into a prominent role at Amazon are examined. The discussion highlights how Jassy is positioning Amazon as a major player in AI and cloud computing.

The conversation also touches on the competitive dynamics among tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta, emphasizing the importance of AI in driving growth.

Overall, the episode reflects on Amazon's strategic direction under Jassy and the implications of AI investments for the future of the company.

TL;DR

Amazon's Q1 earnings show significant growth, driven by AWS and AI investments under Andy Jassy's leadership.

Video

00:00:00
Amazon is out with its q1 earnings
00:00:02
Revenue went up 133% to 143 billion and
00:00:05
profits more than tripled to 10.4
00:00:08
billion both exceeding wall Street's
00:00:10
expectations AWS Amazon Cloud's
00:00:12
Computing unit had a particularly strong
00:00:14
quarter with Revenue up 177% and
00:00:16
operating income rocketing 84% to 9.4
00:00:19
billion really strong numbers uh
00:00:21
obviously Amazon wants to be a big
00:00:23
player in AI cloud computing and other
00:00:24
areas and um they have said AI over 30
00:00:28
times on the earnings call they said it
00:00:30
Amazon recently added another 2.5
00:00:32
billion to its anthropic investment
00:00:34
that's their company they're backing
00:00:35
like Microsoft's backing open AI uh
00:00:38
anthropic is made up of people who left
00:00:39
open AI essentially advertising sales
00:00:41
were also up 24% fueled by uh that move
00:00:45
to turn on ads for Prime video um so
00:00:48
what what do you think they're doing I'm
00:00:50
going to start first actually I think
00:00:51
Andy jasse is is moving himself into the
00:00:54
Sachin nadela Tim Cook position here I
00:00:57
think it's very hard to run a company
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when you're not um the founder and
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especially with the founder still living
00:01:03
um and so you you tend not to get out of
00:01:05
the Shadows he has been there since a
00:01:07
very young age um but he's starting to
00:01:10
figure out how to run this place I think
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um I like him a lot better than Jeff
00:01:14
bases I can tell you that as a person um
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but he's he obviously ran the AWS unit
00:01:19
and brought it to really saved Amazon's
00:01:22
butt creating that unit and he was the
00:01:24
one doing it so I think he's sort of
00:01:26
finding his way in in an interesting way
00:01:28
he still faces enormous Regulatory and
00:01:31
um Congressional investigations to the
00:01:33
marketplace Etc but in general I think
00:01:36
people are liking what they're doing
00:01:38
around Ai and being very crisp but I
00:01:41
don't know your thoughts if you want to
00:01:42
be the CEO of a company typically what
00:01:44
you typically the CEO is usually the
00:01:46
person running the you know the most
00:01:48
profitable operating units Andy ran the
00:01:51
most profitable group with the big the
00:01:53
best future and that is AWS and if you
00:01:55
really look at Amazon I would argue is
00:01:57
now essentially a cloud company with a
00:01:59
really strong retail platform that they
00:02:02
sell media against and the the it's not
00:02:05
only I mean you want to talk about
00:02:06
chocolate and peanut butter Cloud plus
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AI most companies are training their
00:02:11
llms on one of three Cloud providers
00:02:13
these guys are the only ones that have
00:02:15
the money to make the sort of requisite
00:02:16
Investments where you can basically rent
00:02:19
your AI or train your own llms on their
00:02:21
AI compatible cloud services so you not
00:02:24
only have Cloud but you have ai enabled
00:02:26
cloud with huge Moes because no one else
00:02:29
can make these types of Investments
00:02:31
Amazon Google and Microsoft have
00:02:34
67% share of global cloud services um
00:02:37
this is I mean this is the gift these
00:02:40
these
00:02:41
companies really the this quarter was
00:02:43
about Cloud now the fear is that if AI
00:02:47
if every company doesn't start
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scrambling to try and build their own
00:02:51
frontend AI applications or figure out
00:02:53
how AI can work in their business if
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there's any sort of check back these
00:02:56
companies will feel that but these
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companies themselves don't believe that
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at all they continue to add unbel make
00:03:02
unbelievable Investments to offer
00:03:04
incredible opportunity it's like do you
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have a $100 million to build out your
00:03:09
own AI infrastructure or do you want to
00:03:10
rent ours well that's an easy one said
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99.99% of organizations around the world
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but this is now these companies are
00:03:17
essentially their growth is really all
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about AI enabled cloud services it's
00:03:21
just it really is interesting yeah I
00:03:24
find it there's going to be three
00:03:25
companies that's going to be you know
00:03:27
you you called into mind what is how is
00:03:29
Faceook going to monetize this and I
00:03:30
would agree with you how are they going
00:03:31
to monetize I think they'll make their
00:03:33
businesses more efficient including
00:03:34
advertising using Ai and their and the
00:03:38
that that's how they're going to do it
00:03:39
well um but it's it's really meta uh
00:03:43
Microsoft and Amazon to me are the going
00:03:45
to be the big players well not like that
00:03:47
but if you look at Amazon alphabet
00:03:48
Microsoft and meta in the face of growth
00:03:51
that any S&P 500 company would kill for
00:03:54
I mean they're growing like crazy and
00:03:56
everyone's like God how do we grow like
00:03:57
those guys and they they go back to the
00:03:59
board and say okay if you want me to
00:04:00
grow anything like these guys I need you
00:04:02
to approve new hires new plant new
00:04:05
property equipment but Amazon I think
00:04:06
Andy Jesse is sort of coming onto his
00:04:08
own everyone there was always those
00:04:10
rumors that Jeff is coming back I
00:04:12
someone said that to me last night I was
00:04:13
like he's ABS [ __ ] AB did you look at
00:04:16
these earnings and stuff like that you
00:04:17
look at that thong he's not coming back
00:04:19
he's not coming back he's not coming
00:04:21
that's what I said I said look at those
00:04:23
earnings give me a break look at those
00:04:24
fillers in that thong Jesus Christ no
00:04:27
but no no what I said is look at the
00:04:28
earnings for this guy has he had a he
00:04:31
had a rough batch and now I think he's
00:04:32
getting his arms around it the the um
00:04:35
the the Hollywood stuff is the least of
00:04:37
his issues I mean I think they
00:04:38
definitely had been Rocky in that area
00:04:40
but you know they're they're working it
00:04:42
with the with the ads and the you know
00:04:44
they're very systemic systematic excuse
00:04:46
me at um Amazon and you know they still
00:04:49
face enormous regulatory challenges but
00:04:53
in every earnings call the CEO there's a
00:04:55
subtext of what they're saying but
00:04:57
they're not saying and in this latest
00:04:58
earnings call Andy was saying
00:05:01
AI what do you think of me now [ __ ]
00:05:05
right that's what he said cuz that's the
00:05:06
kind of guy he is he's not like that at
00:05:07
all what should they be doing right now
00:05:09
they're doing the healthc care they're
00:05:10
doing I don't know the exact same thing
00:05:13
I I I don't think I mean AI look
00:05:17
everyone everyone is zeroing in on the
00:05:18
same thing all all the biggest players
00:05:20
have said the fastest growing
00:05:22
expenditure in history across uh
00:05:24
corporations and to a lesser extent
00:05:26
consumer is AI they need infrastructure
00:05:29
and it's perfect for them the
00:05:30
infrastructure cost cost so much money
00:05:33
that there's only a few of us that can
00:05:35
do it we'll all have our different
00:05:36
versions of mozzarella mozzarella cheese
00:05:39
but we will be the only Deli in
00:05:41
town so we're just going to go hard at
00:05:43
this and it'll increase our operating I
00:05:45
mean they should do you know what they
00:05:47
should do they should do absolutely
00:05:49
nothing new they should stay focused on
00:05:51
this all right well congratulations
00:05:52
Annie Jesse

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Episode Highlights

  • Amazon's Q1 Earnings Surge
    Amazon's revenue soared 133% to $143 billion, with profits tripling to $10.4 billion.
    @ 00m 02s
    May 03, 2024
  • AWS's Remarkable Growth
    AWS revenue jumped 177%, with operating income up 84% to $9.4 billion.
    @ 00m 14s
    May 03, 2024
  • AI Investment Strategy
    Amazon added $2.5 billion to its Anthropic investment, signaling a strong focus on AI.
    @ 00m 30s
    May 03, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Revenue Growth00:02
  • AI Focus00:23
  • Investment in AI00:30
  • Leadership Transition00:51
  • AWS Dominance01:57
  • Future Outlook03:21

Words per Minute Over Time

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