AWS now a $71bn run-rate business after Q4 results

Amazon’s cloud unit was boosted by contracts with Meta, Best Buy and NASDAQ

AWS is now a $71bn annualised run rate business, up from $51bn a year ago, Amazon claims following the release of its fourth quarter results.

Revenue for Amazon's cloud giant grew 40 per cent to $17.8bn for the three months that ended 31 December compared with the same quarter of 2020.

Amazon's CFO Brian Olsavsky said AWS added "more revenue year-over-year than any quarter in its history", claiming the company had continued to see "an increase in customer demand and sales".

It also ended the quarter with $5.3bn of operating income, up 46 per cent.

"We've been adding resources in sales and marketing over the last few years, and that is starting to pay off," Olsavsky said on the results earnings call.

"Different companies have different COVID experiences, some their volumes went through the roof, some their volumes went through the floor.

"So as things have stabilised, I think the lasting thing is that a lot of people made the commitment to go to the cloud, better understood the benefits of that and probably accelerated their internal timelines for that."

Contributors to AWS' growth in the last quarter included a multi-year partnership with NASDAQ, Best Buy choosing AWS as its preferred cloud provider for infrastructure services and Meta selecting AWS as its long-term strategic cloud provider to accelerate artificial intelligence research and development.

Overall, Amazon's net sales increased nine per cent in the fourth quarter to $137.4bn compared with $125.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2020, but operating income slipped from $6.9bn to $3.5bn.