Amazon holds steady in first quarter

SEATTLE — Amazon continued its steady performance to start 2025, booking a 9% increase in net sales for the first quarter.

The company’s first quarter 2025 net sales were $155.7 billion, up from $143.3 billion in the same quarter of 2024. Excluding the $1.4 billion unfavorable impact from foreign exchange rates, net sales were up 10%. North  American sales grew 8% year-over-year to $92.9 billion, while international also rose by 5% to $33.5 billion or 8%, when factoring in the exchange rate changes.

The company’s AWS segment, however, showed the greatest growth, with net sales increasing 17% year-over-year to $29.3 billion.

Operating income grew by $18.4 billion in the first quarter, while net income increased to $17.1 billion in the first quarter, or $1.59 per diluted share, compared with $10.4 billion, or $0.98 per diluted share, in Q1 2024.

“We’re pleased with the start to 2025, especially our pace of innovation and progress in continuing to improve customer experiences,” said Andy Jassy, president and CEO. “From Alexa+ to another delivery speed record for our Prime members, to our new Trainium2 chips and Bedrock model expansion that make it easier for AWS customers to train models and run inference more flexibly and cost-effectively, to our first Project Kuiper satellites successfully launching into low earth orbit in our quest to provide broadband access to hundreds of millions of households in rural areas without it today — we’re continuing to find meaningful ways to make customers’ lives easier and better every day.”

Some other highlights from the quarter included:

• Deal events, including the Big Spring Sale in the United States and Canada.
• The announcement of Amazon‘s 11th Prime Day will be in July.
• Plans for a $4 billion investment through 2026 to expand Amazon’s rural delivery network to bring even faster delivery to customers in less densely populated areas across the United States.
• Launched Amazon.ie in Ireland, offering more than 200 million products.
• Introduced Saks on Amazon, where customers can shop an assortment of fashion and beauty items.

According to Amazon’s second quarter guidance, net sales are expected to be between $159 billion and $164 billion, or growth of between 7% and 11% compared with second quarter 2024. This guidance anticipates an unfavorable impact of approximately 10 basis points from foreign exchange rates. Operating income is expected to be between $13 billion and $17.5 billion, compared with $14.7 billion in second quarter 2024.

See also:

• Amazon CEO: Startup mentality is behind company’s success
• Amazon ends 2024 on a high note, but Q1 outlook cites ‘large, unfavorable impact’