Amazon reckons operating income will land between $13 billion and $17.5 billion. That’s flatter than a pancake compared with analysts’ $17.7 billion fantasy, and also down from $14.7 billion a year earlier.
Amazon's chief executive, Andy Jassy, claimed the company had prepared for impact by stockpiling Chinese imports ahead of the tariffs jumping to a throat-clenching 145 per cent. “We haven’t seen any attenuation of demand yet,” he said, adding that average selling prices hadn’t spiked much. He warned that plenty of sellers would pass those higher costs on to punters.
Goldman Sachs estimated the new levies could hack $5 billion to $10 billion off Amazon’s annual operating profits. That’s a 6 to 12 per cent gouge from the $79.2 billion analysts had pencilled in. Not ideal when a quarter of the Bookshifter’s wares arrive from the Middle Kingdom.
Amazon’s forecast for net sales in the current quarter, between $159 billion and $164 billion, missed the mark. The lower end of the range fell short of the $161.4 billion figure that analysts were crossing their fingers for.
Revenue for the March quarter was $156 billion, up nine per cent year-on-year and a squeak above consensus. Online retail sales rose a modest five per cent, though the real drivers were still the cloud and advertising departments.
Amazon Web Services, its cash cow cloud division, grew 17 per cent to $29.3 billion. That came in just under the $29.4 billion estimate, but the market barely flinched. Too busy dreaming about AI, presumably.
Amazon said it burned through $24.3 billion in capex last quarter, nearly double what it spent the previous year. It plans to blast through $100 billion this fiscal year, with most of it funnelled into AI. Jassy said new Trainium 3 chips and more Nvidia gear were inbound, though current rollouts are hitting bottlenecks thanks to a shortage of motherboards and other components.
On the ad front, Amazon’s money-printing operation surged 18 per cent to $13.9 billion. Its cut-price import platform, Haul floated the idea of slapping visible tariffs on products like Chinese rival Temu so that users to could see how much the policy was costing them. The company returned after Trump got Bezos on the blower and the White House branded the idea “hostile and political” and Bezo’s bravely backed down.

Financial results at a glance
• For Amazon’s fiscal Q1 ending 31 March 2025:
• Revenue: $156 billion (up 9 per cent year-on-year)
• Net sales forecast for Q2: $159 billion to $164 billion
• Operating income forecast for Q2: $13 billion to $17.5 billion (vs $17.7 billion estimate)
• Amazon Web Services revenue: $29.3 billion (up 17 per cent, just under $29.4 billion estimate)
• Advertising revenue: $13.9 billion (up 18 per cent)
• Capital expenditures: $24.3 billion (up from $13.9 billion)
• Full-year capex plan: $100 billion
• Estimated tariff impact: $5 billion to $10 billion hit to FY operating profit