Copyright cnbc
For the current quarter, Amazon said it expects sales to be $206 billion to $213 billion. The midpoint of the revenue outlook, $209.5 billion, topped estimates of $208 billion, according to LSEG. Operating income is expected to be between $21 billion and $26 billion, compared with analysts’ projected $23.8 billion. AI has become a major area of investment across Amazon, including in its retail, cloud, devices and ads businesses. The company is responding to an explosion of interest around generative AI, particularly after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot in 2022. While it continues to invest in AI, Amazon has looked to cut costs in other areas. On Tuesday, Amazon said it will lay off 14,000 corporate employees, as part of a push to make the company leaner and less bureaucratic, so it can move faster. Jassy addressed the layoffs during a conference call with investors, saying the announcement wasn’t “financially driven” or due to AI, “right now, at least.” “It really it’s culture,” Jassy said. “If you grow, as fast as we did for several years, you know, the size of the businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you’re in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.” Amazon has in recent years shaved its headcount after going on a hiring spree during the pandemic, which caused its corporate and frontline workforces to balloon. The company finished the quarter with about 1.58 million employees, which was a 2% increase from the year ago period. Operating income was flat year over year in the quarter at $17.4 billion. The company said the number reflects its $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, reached in September, over the agency’s “deceptive” Prime signups lawsuit. It also includes about $1.8 billion in severance costs “primarily related to planned role eliminations,” the company said.
