The market gave a tepid reaction to Amazon's (AMZN +1.41%) Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday. If investors were a little miffed by it, there was no denying that a lot of the internet, and a lot of the entire world's tech services, run on AWS. That's a pretty big thumbs up for the world's largest cloud computing company.
That's just one reason Amazon remains one of the best stocks to own, and it could be the ultimate growth stock to buy right now.
Image source: Amazon.
Leading with AI
AWS is a powerhouse on its own, as underscored by this week's meltdown, but it has incredible opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI). AWS is responsible for about 30% of the world's cloud computing, the leader in the space. That gives the company an edge in AI, since it already has exposure to more business than any other competitor as it gets its AI business off the ground.
It has already invested in developing an industry-leading AI platform for AWS clients, with tools and services to address demand from any kind of customer. Developers can use the platform to create their own, custom large language models (LLM), the foundation of generative AI. Midsize companies that don't have the resources for that can engage with AWS's Bedrock program, a semi-custom service that provides a large assortment of LLMs at different price ranges for users to create generative AI apps for their businesses, and small businesses have an array of lower-cost plug-in tools.
Meeting every kind of demand is Amazon's game, and it's been doing it well for decades already. It's no surprise that the AI business has a more than $100 billion run rate, but the amazing thing is that, according to CEO Andy Jassy, it's just getting started. Amazon is investing more than $100 billion this year alone in building the business out further and positioning it for future growth.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Dominating in e-commerce
AI may be the most exciting piece of Amazon's business today, but e-commerce is still its core segment, accounting for about two-thirds of its total sales. Amazon hasn't forgotten about this segment for one second, and it continues to improve its online marketplace with more products, faster delivery speeds, and an overall better value proposition.
E-commerce continues to increase as a percentage of retail sales. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales increased 5.3% year over year in the second quarter, outpacing total retail sales growth of 3.9%, and hitting 16.3% of total retail sales.
With around 40% of U.S. e-commerce sales happening on its platform, Amazon benefits from that increase organically. However, it's ensuring it keeps or even widens its edge with improvements like announcing that it will service more than 4,000 smaller U.S. cities, or tens of millions of customers with same- or next-day delivery by the end of the year. Another new AI-based highlight is the ability to turn product details into audio clips.
Keeping its finger in many pies
As if that weren't enough, Amazon is a big player in several other areas. Its Prime Video service gives it a competitive position in streaming, and it has its own original content, as well as the library it got from buying MGM Studios.
The company also has a massive advertising business, and advertising was its highest-growing segment in the second quarter, with 23% growth year over year. Streaming and advertising go well together, because in addition to leveraging its unparalleled marketplace for ads, it now offers placements on its ad-supported streaming tier.
Amazon has many other businesses, from healthcare and pharmacy to devices and physical retail. It's the second-largest company in the world by sales, and it's creeping ever closer to taking over the top spot for perennial rival Walmart. However, it's only the fifth-largest company by market cap, and it hasn't yet reached the $3 trillion mark, like the top four (Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet).
As it grows its massive AI business and leverages its platform to go into new, vast, AI territory, Amazon still has a tremendous growth runway.
