Amazon Revenues Up 9 Percent to $149.2 Billion in Q4

Amazon delivered on the financial bloodbath it promised, with a net income of just $300 million on revenues of $149.2 billion in the crucial holiday quarter. In the year-ago quarter, Amazon posted a record net income of $14.3 billion, so that figure declined by an incredible 4,767 percent year-over-year (YOY). The good news? Revenues were up 8 percent YOY.

“In the short term, we face an uncertain economy, but we remain quite optimistic about the long-term opportunities for Amazon,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said. “We believe our leading customer experiences along with the results of our continued hard work and invention to improve every day, will lead to significant growth in the coming years. When you also factor in our investments and innovation in several other broad customer experiences—such as streaming entertainment, customer-first healthcare, broadband satellite connectivity for more communities globally—there’s additional reason to feel optimistic about what the future holds.”

Amazon’s profits tumbled for all the expected reasons, but the firm also tossed in a $2.3 billion reduction in the valuation of its investment in the electric truck maker Rivian. Otherwise, it would have posted a profit.

Looking at AWS, Amazon’s dominant cloud platform, the firm reported an operating income of $5.2 billion, a small decline from the year-ago quarter, on revenues of $21.4 billion, up 20 percent YOY, and the slowest growth it has ever recorded. For the full year, AWS delivered an operating income of $22.8 billion on revenues of $80.1 billion, up 29 percent.

Amazon plans to lay off 18,000 corporate and tech workers this year. It ended 2022 with 1.54 million employees.