Amazon’s Stock Surge Amid Job Cuts and AWS Growth
Amazon’s shares jumped over 9% to reach a new all-time high on Friday, fueled by impressive quarterly results, particularly from its cloud division, AWS, which saw revenues increase by double digits, hitting around $30 billion.
“AWS is experiencing growth like we haven’t seen since 2022, with a year-over-year increase of 20.2%, marking the highest growth rate in 11 quarters,” stated CEO Andy Jassy to investors. He expressed optimism about the future trajectory of the business.
Jassy also highlighted a growing backlog, which reached $200 billion at the end of the third quarter, excluding some new deals in October that collectively might exceed the total deal value of the last quarter. “We’re focused on utilizing AWS for our core operations and AI workloads, given its robust features, security, and operational efficiency. The scale we’re witnessing instills great confidence in our future initiatives,” he explained.
Since taking over from co-founder Jeff Bezos in July 2021, Jassy has been steering the company deeper into cloud computing while maintaining competitiveness within its retail sector, including Whole Foods. However, the company recently announced plans to reduce its workforce by 14,000 positions.
Job Cuts Announced
Despite the challenges, Amazon’s stock performance remains notably positive, climbing approximately 11%. However, this is still behind the Nasdaq’s 23% rally and the S&P 500’s 16% growth. The last time Amazon saw stock prices this high was back in February 2025.
Interestingly, over 600 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have Amazon listed as their primary holding. According to reports, several top-performing leaders are also featured there.
ETFs Trending Among Investors
- Global X PureCap MSCI Consumer Discretionary ETF: 34.7% Allocation
- ProShares Online Retail ETF: 24.5% Allocation
- Fidelity MSCI Consumer Discretionary Index ETF: 22.6% Allocation
- Consumer Discretionary Sector SPDR Fund: 22.3% Allocation
- Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF: 21.5% Allocation
ETFs are seeing remarkable activity this year, with over $1 trillion in inflows reported in October, a milestone usually associated with December.
