What happened
Shares of Twilio (TWLO 1.47%) were off to the races Friday, initially surging as much as 11.7%. As of 2:41 p.m. ET, the stock was still up 5.3%.
The catalyst that sent the cloud communications specialist higher was a massive vote of confidence from Amazon (AMZN 3.43%).
So what
In a regulatory filing issued late on Thursday, Amazon revealed that it had taken a 1% stake in Twilio, acquiring 1.7 million shares worth more than $108 million as of Thursday's market close.
The investment came on the heels of an announcement Wednesday that Twilio and Amazon Web Services (AWS) were expanding their existing partnership, which "will place powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities at the fingertips of Twilio customers," according to the press release.
Twilio recently debuted Twilio CustomerAI, a technology layer that integrates generative AI and predictive AI tools into the company's customer engagement platform. The partnership will incorporate first-party data to "anticipate future customer actions" and identify and prioritize a business's most valuable customers.
Now what
Twilio operates a cloud communication platform that provides businesses with the tools to integrate voice calls, text messages, and security verification tools into their software and apps while increasing customer engagement. During the downturn, many businesses decided Twilio's services weren't essential, and growth slowed to a crawl.
Integrating AI tools into its repertoire may provide the jolt the company needs to boost its growth, but investors will want to keep a close eye on its results to ensure Twilio is making progress.
Twilio is scheduled to release its second-quarter results after the market close on Aug. 8.
