Amazon jumps as AWS growth soothes fears over rising AI spending

Amazon shares jumped more than 12% before the bell on Friday after the e-commerce and cloud giant posted its strongest cloud growth in over four years, bolstering investor confidence that its multibillion-dollar AI bets are driving a fresh wave of demand.

The rally put Amazon on track to add about $300 billion in market value, as investors looked past a 10% increase in planned capital ‌expenditure to $220 ⁠billion and ⁠instead focused on booming demand at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the profit engine at the center of the company’s AI push.