SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Amazon on Thursday reported that its third-quarter net sales rose 12 percent year on year to 201.94 billion U.S. dollars, driven in part by strong growth in its cloud computing business, while net income declined 2.4 percent.
According to the U.S. e-commerce and technology giant's financial results for the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income fell to 20.69 billion dollars from 21.19 billion dollars a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share decreased to 1.89 dollars from 1.95 dollars.
Amazon attributed the decline in net income primarily to the impact of pretax gains of 9.5 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2025 from its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company's cloud computing division, reported net sales of 45.98 billion dollars, up 39.3 percent year on year, marking its fastest growth in nearly five years. AWS operating income rose 55 percent to 17.77 billion dollars from 11.43 billion dollars a year earlier.
Net sales from advertising services increased 11 percent year on year to 19.64 billion dollars.
The company's free cash flow turned negative in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, recording an outflow of 42.4 billion dollars, compared with an inflow of 14.8 billion dollars a year earlier, primarily reflecting increased investment in AI infrastructure.
Looking ahead, the company expects fourth-quarter net sales to range from 240 billion to 247 billion dollars, representing year-on-year growth of 12 percent to 16 percent. Operating income is projected to reach 28.5 billion to 33.5 billion dollars, up from 25 billion dollars a year earlier.
