clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Amazon Web Services is approaching a $10 billion-a-year business

AWS is growing fast and was Amazon's most profitable segment last quarter.

Asa Mathat

Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing arm, continues to grow rapidly and is the company’s most profitable segment.

Amazon said today that AWS generated $2.6 billion in revenue during the first quarter, representing 64 percent year-over-year growth. That’s a slight deceleration from 69 percent growth during the fourth quarter and roughly in line with Wall Street’s expectations.

Amazon Web Services revenue growth chart

Over the past four quarters, AWS generated $8.9 billion in revenue for Amazon. That trailing-twelve-months figure is likely to pass $10 billion sometime this year.

AWS also continues to be a profit bright spot for Amazon. The segment’s operating income, after stock-based compensation, reached $604 million during the first quarter, up from $195 million during the year-ago quarter. That was better than the company’s North America commerce segment ($588 million operating income) or international ($121 million operating loss).

Stock-based compensation (“and other” expenses) for AWS reached $112 million during the first quarter, up from $70 million a year ago.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.