What else to watch for?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) performance and AI investments
Investors will closely monitor AWS revenue growth, a key driver of Amazon’s profitability. Analysts will assess whether the segment’s margins, which dipped to 32.9% in Q2 from 39.5% in Q1 due to heavy AI infrastructure spending, show signs of recovery or further pressure.
Capex and AI investments
The ongoing capex surge, largely for AI-driven data centre expansion and custom silicon like Trainium chips, will be scrutinised for early returns on AI workloads, especially as competitors like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud intensify their AI offerings.
AWS outage impact
On 21 October 2025, AWS suffered a significant outage in its US-East-1 region, affecting services such as EC2, RDS, Lambda, and S3 globally. Investors will seek insights on the outage’s root cause, financial implications, and measures to enhance reliability. AWS’s market leadership hinges on consistent uptime and trust.
E-commerce and holiday season outlook
As Q3 leads into the critical Q4 holiday season, Amazon’s guidance for Q4 sales and operational efficiency in its e-commerce segment will be key. Investment updates in logistics, such as fulfilment centre expansions and same-day delivery, could drive market share gains during the holiday period.
Advertising growth
Amazon’s advertising segment, which grew 23% YoY to $15.69 billion in Q2, remains a high-margin business. Analysts will look for sustained momentum in Q3, particularly in sponsored ads and video advertising, as Amazon competes with Meta and Google in the digital ad space.
AI product developments
Beyond AWS, Amazon’s advancements in AI-driven products, such as Alexa enhancements and generative AI tools for sellers, could provide upside. CEO Andy Jassy’s comments on AI-driven customer experience improvements will be critical, especially as Amazon aims to integrate AI more deeply across its ecosystem.
Is Amazon a buy or a sell?
Amazon has a TipRanks Smart Score of ’10 outperform’ and is rated as a ‘strong buy’ by analysts with 44 ‘buy’ recommendations, 0 ‘hold’ and 0 ‘sell’ recommendations, as of 21 October 2025.