Amazon's Cloud Business Continues to Beat Sky-High Expectations -- Market Talk

0940 GMT - Amazon's surging cloud business AWS finally saw a long-waited acceleration in growth, Bernstein analysts write. The division notched its fastest growth rate in 18 quarters, and reported higher-than-expected revenue Thursday. "The expectations bar keeps moving higher, and AWS keeps clearing it," the analysts write. Company management gave detail on how data center expansion will translate into earnings, with the company expecting a payback on its huge capital expenditure over two to three years--though the analysts expect a return to materialize faster. Other divisions also performed strongly, meaning there was no negative distraction from the cloud-based story, they say. "It's nice when all the pieces come together." Shares jump 12% premarket. (josephmichael.stonor@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2026 05:40 ET (09:40 GMT)