Amazon shares soar 11% as AI boom fuels stellar growth in AWS cloud unit

Amazon shares surged more than 11% in early trading on Friday after strong growth at its cloud unit and a bullish sales outlook eased fears that the tech giant was falling behind rivals in the AI race.

Revenue at Amazon Web Services, the hub of the company’s recent AI investments, rose 20% in the third quarter. Although Microsoft Azure’s revenue increased by 40% and Google Cloud’s by 34%, AWS’s sheer scale magnifies its growth impact.