Amazon’s marketplace cap hits $2 trillion as its CFO helps oversee AI and cut prices

Amazon’s stock is up nearly 30% this year — and up nearly 50% over the past year. Earlier in 2024, Alphabet’s market cap had fallen by $2 trillion, but the two companies are still tracking Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia, all of which have more than $3 trillion. (United States Securities raised its price target for Amazon shares from $210 to $220.)

“We believe Amazon is starting to join the AI ​​party, and the Street is now at $2 trillion cleared and $3 trillion,” Dan Ives, managing partner at Wedbush Securities, told me on Thursday. Paying attention to the road.” “Amazon is coming to the dance floor now.”

On the other hand, on Thursday, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky didn’t just post on LinkedIn about joining the $2 trillion market cap membership — instead he commented at the annual meeting of the company’s Finance and Global Industries Products and Services (FGBS) unit. FGBS is composed of several company groups with equivalent accounting, corporate FP&A and finance operations.

“We’ve heard about fraud prevention, generative AI tools that are improving controls, forecasting, and more,” Olsavsky writes. “The presenters demonstrated how they continually work to deliver results, invent and simplify, and create better, innovative experiences for our customers.”

Amazon (No. 2 in the Fortune 500), led by CEO Andy Jassy, ​​has finally hit an inflection point where it can both invest heavily in long-term bets like generic AI life and make significant profits on the same date. LuckJason Del Rey recently reported. In April, Amazon reported Q1 2024 revenue of $143.3 billion, up 13% year over year, and a profit of $10 billion.

Amazon Internet Products and Services (AWS) revenue in Q1 was $25 billion, a 17% increase year over year. AWS is now a $100 billion annual revenue run charge industry, as Olsavsky noted in an April earnings call.

Within the first quarter, “we’ve seen growth in both generative AI and non-generative AI workloads across a diverse group of customers and across industries—as companies shift their focus to driving innovation and bringing new workloads to the cloud,” They said. , Amazon is seeing continued strong demand for AWS, and has introduced Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered worker.

Olsavsky, CFO since 2015 and a 22-year Amazon veteran, said during an April revenue call that the company is more interested in using efficiencies across the industry to invest in AWS speed, including generic AI. Yet “it’s still relatively early days in generative AI and the cloud space more broadly, and we see huge opportunities for growth,” he said.

Amazon is cutting prices and restructuring its industry to invest money in AI in the long term. Amazon conducted several rounds of layoffs from November 2022 to March 2023, laying off a total of 27,000 employees. The company reportedly laid off more than 100 customer support managers working in Stage 5 and Stage 6 heart control positions, Del Rey reports. Amazon categories like AWS, Top Video, and Twitch are hiring a lot this year.

Have a great weekend.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

leaderboard

Some notable events in this life:

Karen Parkhill Was named CFO at HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), effective August 5. Since 2016, Parkhill has served as EVP and CFO at Medtronic, an international supplier of medical gadgets. Parkill replaced Mary Myers as CFO. Myers steps down from his ceremony at HP to say I’m sick Ty Hewlett Packard Endeavor As EVP and CFO in January. CFO Tim Brown, meanwhile, will likely return to his role as head of print finance.

marcos gabriel Was promoted to EVP and CFO at McCormick & Corporate, Incorporated (NYSE: MKC), effective December 1. At that time, Mike Smith will move forward with corporate as EVP until his resignation on February 28, 2025. Gabriel, most recently SVP of World Finance and Capital Markets, joined McCormick in 2017 as CFO of the Americas. He also played the role of transformation officer.

matt lessmeister On June 25, Fly Exclusive, Inc. (NYSE American: FLYX), was promoted to CFO at a personal constitution jet company. He leaves CFO Billy Barnard amid a winning tenure. Lesmeister joined the company on May 30 as EVP and staff member and has 14 years of public corporate experience in various finance roles. Most recently, he served as vice president of transformation and technology at Fox Factory Keeping Corp.

Kathleen WaliasekThe CFO at Native Bounty Co. (NYSE: LOCL) is stepping into the role of alternate president, effective June 24. Valiasek has been CFO at the indoor agriculture company since April 2021. Till now, he has served as CFO and Industry Officer at Amyris. , manufacturer of sustainable materials for the fitness and good looks markets.

Kevin Nihill Used to be named CFO at Rhinebeck Bancorp and Rhinebeck Deposit (NASDAQ: RBKB). Nihill replaces former CFO, Michael McDermott, who retired after 23 years at the store. Nihil Maximum most recently served as EVP and CFO at St. Mary’s Deposit. He also served as SVP and Treasurer at Berkshire Deposit.

Laurie Kearns Byrna Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: BYRN) as CFO, effective July 15. Cairns has over twenty years of experience, most recently serving as CFO for consumer experience (CX) technology company Harte Hanks. Prior to his role as CFO at Harte Hanks, Kearns held various positions including Company Controller, Staff VP of Finance, and VP of Finance.

Eric Ostrowski Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical corporate. (Nasdaq: AKBA) as SVP, CFO and Industry Officer. Ostrowski joins Akebia from AvroBio, where he served as President, CEO and CFO and led the execution of its merger with Tectonic Healing. Previously, he was CFO of Height Therapeutics where he led its initial public offering on Nasdaq.

in rough business

As companies try to meet their net-zero and alternative sustainability goals and satisfy regulatory requirements, there is now a greater sense of urgency, according to unreleased analysis from Accenture. The survey and in-depth interviews of more than 700 CFOs in 11 countries reveals that 81% of finance leaders are feeling pressured. Of those CFOs, 72% said the most pressure to take action on relevant sustainability issues is coming from governments and regulators, 71% said from board participants and 55% said from shareholders/buyers.

Then laws require companies to file on threats and alternatives to shape exchanges and seek outside agreement on their disclosures. On the other hand, only 22% of CFOs surveyed say they are well prepared to perform each task. Accenture suggests 9 talent-based features for companies to boost their sustainability strategy.

going deeper

Listed here are some of the lessons from Fortune’s weekend:

“Goldman Sachs ‘worst hit’ in Fed’s latest stress test of big banks. Bank of America still lists it as a buy, via Michael del Castillo

“How much would a $1,000 investment in Apple stock 10 years ago be worth today” via Alicia Adamczyk

“SoftBank’s billionaire CEO says he was put on Earth to create artificial superintelligence that’s 10,000 times smarter than a human — ‘I’m very serious about it'” via Will Daniels

According to Alexa Mikhail, “The best time of day to drink coffee for maximum benefits isn’t the first thing you wake up in the morning.”

heard it

“There is even more hard work ahead of us, and we are focused on building a solid foundation for the future, stabilizing our business and returning to long-term enterprise growth.”

— Manmohan Mahajan, world CFO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, said Thursday during the company’s earnings call for the period ending March 31. Walgreens announced it would close a “significant” number of underperforming U.S. stores. “Walgreens is dealing with tough business conditions, including continued pressure on the U.S. consumer and the impact of recent market dynamics that have depressed pharmacy margins,” CEO Tim Wentworth said in an observation. The company reduced its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $2.80 to $2.95.