By Deborah Mary Sophia and Greg Bensinger
(Reuters) -Amazon.com forecast current quarter sales below estimates, and shares fell sharply after hours even though second-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates.
Amazon’s focus on successes in its AWS cloud computing did not cheer investors who sent shares of the Seattle-based company down more than 6% in extended trading.
“We’re continuing to make progress on a number of dimensions, but perhaps none more so than the continued re-acceleration in AWS growth,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a release announcing the results.
Amazon shares had gained 23% this year through the regular close on Thursday.
Sticky inflation and high borrowing costs are prompting companies to reconsider any lavish investments into artificial intelligence technology, holding back cloud providers from matching Wall Street’s lofty expectations.
Amazon’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), reported a 19% increase in revenue to $26.3 billion for the second quarter, surpassing market estimates of $25.95 billion.
The company expects revenue of $154.0 billion to $158.5 billion for the third quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $158.24 billion, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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