AWS Revenue Hits US$108bn as Amazon Accelerates AI Push

Amazon Web Services (AWS) reported revenue of US$108bn for 2024, representing growth of 19% year-over-year, as the cloud provider continues expansion of its AI capabilities.

The figures were revealed in Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's annual shareholder letter, which highlighted the cloud division's contribution to Amazon's overall revenue of US$638 billion, up 11% from the previous year.

Jassy disclosed that AWS's AI-specific revenue now represents “a multi-billion-dollar annual revenue run rate" and is "growing at triple digit YoY percentages,” indicating substantial market demand for the company's AI infrastructure offerings.

“Generative AI (Gen AI) is going to reinvent virtually every customer experience we know, and enable altogether new ones about which we've only fantasised,” Jassy writes in the letter.

The tech giant has committed to developing more than 1,000 Gen AI applications across its business units, spanning infrastructure services within AWS through to consumer products, including the recently launched Alexa+ service.

Amazon Trainium2 Chips target data centre efficiency

A central component of Amazon's AI strategy involves custom silicon development, with Jassy positioning the company's Trainium2 chips as a direct alternative to established GPU providers in the data centre industry.

According to Jassy, these processors deliver “30-40% better price-performance than the current GPU-powered compute instances generally available today,” addressing escalating infrastructure costs within AI deployments.

He adds: “AI does not have to be as expensive as it is today, and it won't be in the future. Chips are the biggest culprit. Most AI to date has been built on one chip provider. It's pricey.”

Jassy also signalled that while model training accounts for substantial investment currently, the industry's cost structure will shift, explaining: “inference will represent the overwhelming majority of future AI cost.”

Currently, AWS is focusing on technological improvements in “model distillation, prompt caching, computing infrastructure and model architectures” to address these efficiency requirements.

The cloud division has ultimately emerged as the core of Amazon's technology strategy, with Jassy describing it as developing “the key primitives (or building blocks) for AI development,” including both hardware and the company's Nova AI models introduced at the re:Invent conference.

Alexa+ development central to Amazon AI strategy

Amazon has positioned its enhanced Alexa+ system as a competitive offering in the AI assistant market, building upon an installed base of over 600 million Alexa devices globally.

Jassy addressed limitations in existing personal assistants, stating: “A great personal assistant can answer virtually any question and get things done on your behalf. There have been no digital solutions that can do both yet. That is, until Alexa+ arrived.”

The company views this assistant technology as a differentiation point against rivals in both consumer and enterprise markets, potentially extending into data centre management applications.

Beyond AI initiatives, Amazon continues development of Project Kuiper, its satellite network designed to expand connectivity. 

“There are about 400-500 million households around the world, most in small, rural towns that don't have access to broadband connectivity," Jassy notes.

The shareholder letter also addressed Amazon's workplace policies, including the company's January 2025 mandate requiring corporate employees to return to office five days weekly, ending previous hybrid arrangements.

Jassy defended the decision based on collaboration requirements for technology development: “In my experience, it doesn't compare to being in the same room. The energy, the pace, the spontaneous brainstorming, the willingness for people to jump in, the way ideas evolve in real time and the post-meeting iteration is much better when in the same room — and yields better outcomes for our customers and teams.”

The company has maintained its practice of using written narratives rather than slide presentations since 2004, which Jassy indicates enables teams to “highlight the key issues in enough detail to be crisp and clear”.

Amazon's operating income increased 86% to US$68.6bn in 2024, providing resources for continued expansion of data centre infrastructure and technology development.

The CEO framed Amazon's approach to innovation and technology investment through the lens of organisational culture: “We operate like the world's largest startup in large part because of our culture of Why. 

“We don't always get everything right and we learn and iterate like crazy.”

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