Amazon’s shares have risen approximately 26% year-to-date, surpassing the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 18% increase over the same period.
Amazon’s shares surged over 3% during intraday trading on Wednesday, propelling the company’s market capitalization beyond $2 trillion for the first time in its history.
This achievement aligns Amazon with other tech giants like Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft, all of which boast market values exceeding $2 trillion. The recent influx of investor interest in technology stocks has been fueled by burgeoning enthusiasm surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia, renowned for its graphics processors crucial to servers powering extensive AI models, epitomizes this trend, witnessing a remarkable ascent from a $2 trillion to a $3 trillion market valuation in just over three months.
Amazon’s shares have exhibited substantial growth, climbing approximately 26% since the beginning of the year, surpassing the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s overall increase of around 18% over the same period.
In its April earnings report, Amazon disclosed that its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division was rebounding robustly from a recent downturn, attributed to businesses curtailing their cloud expenditures. Executives at Amazon elaborated extensively on AWS’s potential to capitalize on heightened demand for generative AI services.
Investors have also lauded Amazon’s recent initiatives aimed at reducing costs, which have significantly bolstered the company’s earnings performance in recent quarters. CEO Andy Jassy has embarked on a multi-year campaign to streamline Amazon’s expenditure, including widespread layoffs affecting over 27,000 employees across various sectors.
Amazon’s journey to surpass the $2 trillion market cap milestone spanned more than four years. The company initially achieved a $1 trillion market cap in 2020, marking its second instance of reaching this benchmark after its inaugural achievement in 2018.
