Amazon

Amazon is a multinational technology and commerce company operating across online retail, third-party marketplaces, cloud computing, advertising, subscriptions, entertainment, devices, logistics, grocery, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.

Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon developed from an online bookstore into a collection of interconnected consumer and enterprise businesses. Its scale comes not only from retail but also from businesses such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Marketplace, Prime, advertising, logistics, and increasingly AI infrastructure.

Last updated: August 18, 2026

About Amazon

Amazon is best known as one of the world's largest online commerce companies, but describing it simply as an internet retailer leaves out much of the modern business.

The company operates consumer marketplaces, sells products directly, provides infrastructure to third-party sellers, runs one of the world's major cloud-computing platforms, sells digital advertising, operates subscription and entertainment services, develops consumer devices, and has expanded into areas including grocery and healthcare.

Amazon officially reports three operating segments:

• North America

• International

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Those reporting segments should not be confused with Amazon's individual businesses. Advertising, Prime, Marketplace, physical stores, entertainment, devices, healthcare, and other activities sit within a broader corporate structure rather than appearing as separate reportable segments.

That distinction is important when evaluating Amazon. The company is not one business operating at enormous scale. It is a portfolio of businesses with different customers, economics, competitive environments, and strategic roles.

What Does Amazon Do?

Amazon operates across both consumer and enterprise markets.

Its major activities can be grouped into several broad areas.

Online Commerce

Amazon sells products directly to customers through its online stores while also allowing third-party merchants to sell through Amazon Marketplace.

This creates two different commercial roles.

In some transactions, Amazon is the retailer and owns the inventory being sold. In others, Amazon operates the marketplace infrastructure through which another business reaches the customer.

Seller and Logistics Services

Third-party merchants can use Amazon for more than product discovery.

Amazon offers services such as fulfilment, storage, shipping, and related seller infrastructure. These services allow Amazon to participate in transactions even when it does not own the merchandise.

This model expands the number of products Amazon can offer without requiring the company to purchase every item appearing in its marketplace.

Cloud Computing

Amazon Web Services provides computing infrastructure and technology services to organizations.

AWS covers areas such as:

• computing;

• storage;

• databases;

• networking;

• cybersecurity;

• analytics;

• machine learning;

• generative AI;

• developer infrastructure.

AWS serves a very different customer base from Amazon's retail business and has developed into one of the company's most economically important operations.

Advertising

Amazon sells advertising services to brands, sellers, vendors, and other advertisers.

Advertising fits closely with Amazon's commerce activities because advertisers can reach people while they are searching for, comparing, or considering products.

This gives Amazon another way to monetize the activity taking place across its shopping ecosystem.

H3: Membership and Digital Services

Amazon Prime combines delivery benefits with entertainment and other membership features.

The company also operates digital media businesses including Prime Video, Amazon Music, Audible, Twitch, and Amazon MGM Studios.

Devices, Grocery, and Healthcare

Amazon's consumer technology portfolio includes products and businesses such as Kindle, Echo, Alexa, Fire devices, Ring, Blink, and eero.

Whole Foods expanded Amazon into large-scale physical grocery retail, while Amazon Pharmacy and One Medical represent its expansion into healthcare services.

Amazon Business Model

Amazon's business model combines several different economic models rather than relying on a single type of transaction.

At the consumer level, Amazon operates as both a retailer and a marketplace platform.

As a retailer, Amazon purchases inventory and resells products. As a marketplace operator, it allows independent merchants to reach customers and earns commissions and service fees.

Around that marketplace, Amazon has built additional businesses that can reinforce the core commerce platform.

Marketplace sellers may use Amazon's fulfilment infrastructure. Those same sellers may pay for advertising to improve visibility. Prime gives customers additional reasons to shop repeatedly. Logistics infrastructure supports both Amazon-owned inventory and third-party merchants.

A simplified version of the commerce system looks like this:

More sellers can increase product selection → stronger selection can attract more shoppers → greater shopper activity can make the marketplace more attractive to sellers → increased seller activity can create additional demand for fulfilment and advertising services.

This is an analytical model rather than a formal Amazon reporting structure, but it explains why several Amazon businesses can reinforce one another.

AWS is connected differently.

Its customers, economics, sales process, and competitors differ substantially from Amazon Stores. The connection is primarily capability-based: Amazon transformed expertise in large-scale computing infrastructure into a service that external organizations could buy.

Amazon therefore operates several business models simultaneously:

• direct retail;

• marketplace commissions;

• logistics and seller services;

• cloud infrastructure;

• digital advertising;

• recurring subscriptions;

• physical retail;

• digital media;

• healthcare and other services.

The strength of the model comes partly from the fact that Amazon can participate in multiple parts of a customer or merchant relationship instead of depending only on the final product sale.

How Does Amazon Make Money?

Amazon earns revenue from several major sources.

First-Party Product Sales

When Amazon buys products from manufacturers, distributors, or other suppliers and resells them, it earns revenue from the retail transaction.

This remains a major source of Amazon's overall sales.

Third-Party Seller Services

Independent sellers pay Amazon through commissions and services associated with selling through the marketplace.

Amazon defines third-party seller services as including commissions as well as related fulfilment, shipping, and other seller-service fees.

This means Amazon can earn revenue from commerce without owning all the inventory being sold.

AWS

AWS customers pay Amazon for cloud infrastructure and technology services.

The economics of cloud computing differ significantly from consumer retail, which is why AWS can be disproportionately important to Amazon's operating income even though its revenue is smaller than Amazon's North America segment.

Advertising

Brands and merchants pay Amazon for advertising across sponsored, display, video, and related formats.

Advertising benefits from Amazon's position close to the point of purchase. Merchants are competing for visibility among shoppers who may already be actively considering a transaction.

Subscriptions

Amazon earns recurring revenue from Prime memberships and other non-AWS subscription services.

Prime also has strategic value beyond subscription revenue because it gives customers additional reasons to remain active within Amazon's ecosystem.

Physical Stores and Other Services

Amazon earns additional revenue through physical stores, grocery, healthcare, shipping, and other service businesses.

These activities are not all equally important financially, but they broaden the range of markets in which Amazon participates.

2025 Financial Performance

Amazon reported $716.9 billion in net sales for 2025, up 12% from 2024.

The figures show why revenue and economic importance should be analyzed separately.

North America generated far more sales than AWS in 2025, but AWS produced $45.6 billion of Amazon's $80.0 billion in total operating income.

That makes AWS strategically important beyond its share of total revenue.

Latest Update: Q2 2026

Amazon reported $200.6 billion in net sales in Q2 2026, up 20% year over year.

AWS quarterly sales increased 37% to approximately $42.2 billion, while AWS operating income reached approximately $16.6 billion.

Amazon also reported approximately 1.595 million full- and part-time employees, excluding contractors and temporary personnel, at quarter-end.

One headline figure requires additional context.

Amazon reported $62.6 billion in Q2 2026 net income, but the company said this included $53.4 billion of non-operating pre-tax other income, primarily related to its investments in Anthropic.

Operating results and investment-related valuation gains therefore need to be separated when interpreting the quarter.

Products and Services

Amazon's portfolio includes consumer, enterprise, media, logistics, and healthcare businesses.

Amazon Stores and Marketplace

Amazon's online stores combine products sold directly by Amazon with products offered by independent merchants.

Marketplace expands selection without requiring Amazon to own every item listed on the platform.

Amazon Web Services

AWS provides cloud infrastructure and software services to businesses, developers, governments, startups, and other organizations.

Its services span computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, security, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Amazon Prime

Prime is Amazon's membership program.

Benefits vary by country, but commonly include delivery advantages and access to entertainment services.

Its broader strategic role is customer retention: Prime creates an ongoing relationship rather than relying exclusively on individual transactions.

Advertising

Amazon Ads allows brands and merchants to promote products and campaigns across Amazon's commerce and media properties.

The business benefits from Amazon's access to shopping activity and commercial intent.

Entertainment

Amazon's entertainment portfolio includes Prime Video, Amazon MGM Studios, Amazon Music, Audible, and Twitch.

These businesses give Amazon additional consumer touchpoints while strengthening the value of Prime and expanding the company's intellectual-property and media assets.

Devices and Smart Home

Amazon's hardware portfolio has included Kindle, Echo, Fire devices, Ring, Blink, and eero.

These products give consumers additional ways to interact with Amazon services and connected-home technology.

Grocery and Healthcare

Whole Foods gives Amazon a large physical grocery footprint.

Amazon Pharmacy and One Medical extend the company's presence into prescription services and primary care.

Healthcare remains smaller than Amazon's core commerce and AWS businesses, but it illustrates the company's willingness to apply its technology, logistics, and customer-service capabilities to additional industries.

Customers and Markets

Amazon serves several distinct customer groups.

Consumers

Individual shoppers use Amazon for product discovery, purchases, delivery, entertainment, devices, subscriptions, grocery, and other consumer services.

Prime strengthens Amazon's relationship with this audience by combining multiple benefits inside one membership.

Third-Party Sellers and Brands

Independent merchants use Amazon Marketplace to reach customers.

Some sellers also use Amazon's fulfilment, shipping, and advertising services, creating a broader business relationship than marketplace access alone.

Brands and advertisers can also use Amazon Ads to reach shoppers and other audiences.

Businesses and Enterprise Customers

AWS serves businesses ranging from startups to large enterprises.

Amazon Business also provides commerce infrastructure for organizational purchasing.

This makes Amazon a significant B2B company in addition to its much more visible consumer operations.

Governments and Public-Sector Organizations

AWS also provides technology infrastructure to government and public-sector customers.

These customers typically have different procurement, security, compliance, and operational requirements from individual shoppers.

Media Audiences and Creators

Prime Video, Twitch, Audible, Amazon Music, and related services serve viewers, listeners, creators, publishers, and entertainment partners.

Geographic Markets

Amazon operates across North America and numerous international markets.

Its formal financial reporting separates consumer operations into North America and International segments, while AWS operates as a separate global technology segment.

The importance of individual countries and services varies considerably, so Amazon's presence should not be assumed to be identical across markets.

Competitors

Amazon competes with different companies depending on the business being examined.

There is no single company that mirrors Amazon across every major market.

Retail Competition

Amazon competes with both traditional retailers and online marketplaces.

Competition can involve price, product selection, delivery speed, convenience, customer service, and seller participation.

Cloud Competition

AWS competes with other major cloud platforms, particularly Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

The competitive factors are different from retail and include infrastructure scale, product breadth, enterprise relationships, security, developer tools, performance, and AI capabilities.

Advertising Competition

Amazon competes for advertising budgets with major digital platforms and retail-media businesses.

Its distinctive position comes from combining advertising with a large commerce platform.

Entertainment Competition

Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios compete with streaming platforms, studios, and other entertainment companies for viewers, content, and intellectual property.

AI Competition

Amazon's AI activities bring it into competition across cloud infrastructure, processors, model platforms, and enterprise AI services.

That means different parts of its AI strategy compete with different companies rather than one single rival.

H2: Company History

Amazon's development can be understood through a relatively small number of turning points.

Marketplace Was an Early Business-Model Turning Point

Amazon's expansion beyond books mattered, but Marketplace changed the business more fundamentally.

Amazon could increasingly earn from transactions without owning the merchandise involved, turning the company into both a retailer and a platform for retailers.

AWS Created a Second Economic Center

The launch and expansion of AWS demonstrated that technology built around Amazon's own infrastructure needs could become an external product.

AWS eventually developed into a major enterprise platform and one of Amazon's most important sources of operating income.

Acquisitions Added Capabilities Rather Than Just Revenue

Several large Amazon acquisitions accelerated entry into markets where building equivalent capabilities organically could have taken much longer.

Whole Foods added physical grocery infrastructure. MGM expanded entertainment assets. Twitch added a major livestreaming community. One Medical brought primary-care capabilities.

Leadership

Amazon is led by Andy Jassy, who serves as President and Chief Executive Officer.

Founder Jeff Bezos remains involved as Executive Chair.

Andy Jassy — President and CEO

Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and played a central role in building AWS before becoming Amazon CEO in 2021.

His leadership period has coincided with heavy investment in cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, logistics, and operational efficiency.

Jeff Bezos — Founder and Executive Chair

Bezos founded Amazon and served as CEO until 2021.

As Executive Chair, he remains strategically connected to the company without managing day-to-day operations as CEO.

Other Key Executives

Amazon's current senior leadership includes:

• Matt Garman — CEO of AWS

• Doug Herrington — CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores

• Brian Olsavsky — Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

These roles reflect Amazon's organizational complexity: the consumer commerce and AWS businesses are large enough to require substantial dedicated executive leadership beneath the company-wide CEO.

Amazon Leadership Principles

Amazon has 16 Leadership Principles that it uses as part of its management and decision-making system.

The principles emphasize themes such as:

• customer obsession;

• ownership;

• innovation;

• high standards;

• speed;

• detailed analysis;

• talent development;

• accountability;

• constructive disagreement.

Their significance is not simply cultural branding.

A shared management framework can reduce coordination problems inside a company that operates across many industries, countries, and business models.

Ownership, Subsidiaries and Corporate Structure

Amazon.com, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker AMZN.

It is not a subsidiary of another parent company.

Amazon's corporate structure contains a large number of operating businesses, subsidiaries, brands, and acquired companies.

Important businesses and controlled operations include:

• Amazon Web Services;

• Whole Foods Market;

• Amazon MGM Studios;

• Twitch;

• Audible;

• Amazon Pharmacy;

• One Medical;

• Ring;

• Blink;

• eero.

Amazon also holds significant investments in other technology businesses, including Anthropic.

These investments should be distinguished from Amazon's controlled subsidiaries. Amazon's investment-related gains can affect reported net income even when they do not represent operating revenue from Amazon's core businesses.

The company officially organizes financial reporting around three segments:

1. North America

2. International

3. AWS

This reporting structure is considerably simpler than Amazon's actual operating portfolio.

Advertising, subscriptions, third-party seller services, physical stores, entertainment, healthcare, devices, and other businesses appear within that larger structure rather than each being treated as a separate reportable segment.

Amazon Strategy

Amazon's current strategy combines expansion of established businesses with large investments in infrastructure and emerging technologies.

Strengthen the Commerce Ecosystem

Amazon continues to operate around selection, convenience, fulfilment, seller participation, and delivery.

Marketplace, logistics, Prime, and advertising can reinforce one another because each addresses a different part of the same commerce system.

Grow AWS and Enterprise Technology

AWS remains one of Amazon's most strategically important businesses.

Its growth gives Amazon exposure to enterprise technology spending rather than relying entirely on consumer commerce.

Cloud infrastructure also provides the foundation for much of Amazon's AI strategy.

H3: Expand Across the AI Technology Stack

Amazon is approaching AI across several layers:

1.cloud and data-center infrastructure;

2.custom processors;

3.foundation models and model access;

4.developer platforms;

5.AI applications inside existing Amazon businesses.

AWS provides the underlying cloud infrastructure.

Amazon develops custom processors including Trainium for AI workloads and Graviton for general-purpose cloud computing.

Amazon Bedrock provides access to foundation models and tools for building generative-AI applications, while Amazon also develops its Nova model family.

In its Q2 2026 earnings release, Amazon said both AWS's AI business and its chips business had exceeded $25 billion in annualized revenue run rate and were growing at triple-digit percentages year over year.

These are company-reported annualized run rates, not full-year reported revenue, and AI and chips are not disclosed as separate Amazon financial reporting segments.

Use AI Across Existing Businesses

Amazon is also integrating AI into shopping, advertising, logistics, customer service, software development, Alexa, and other products.

This means Amazon does not need AI to exist as one separate standalone business for the technology to affect its broader economics.

Invest Heavily in Infrastructure

Amazon's strategy requires substantial capital expenditure.

For 2025, Amazon reported that free cash flow declined to $11.2 billion, with increased property and equipment purchases primarily reflecting AI investment.

The company also said it expected approximately $200 billion in capital expenditures during 2026.

The scale of this investment shows that Amazon is willing to commit capital well ahead of fully realized demand when management believes infrastructure constraints could limit future growth.

Key Challenges and Risks

Amazon's scale creates advantages, but it also creates risks that are unusually broad because the company operates in many industries.

Capital Intensity

Cloud computing and AI require large investments in data centers, servers, chips, networking equipment, land, and power infrastructure.

The timing creates risk because capital is spent before the resulting capacity necessarily produces corresponding revenue.

If demand develops more slowly than expected, Amazon can be left with excess capacity. If demand develops faster than expected, insufficient capacity can limit growth.

Regulatory Exposure

Amazon operates across retail, digital advertising, cloud computing, healthcare, entertainment, logistics, and other markets that face different regulatory requirements.

Its scale also attracts competition and antitrust scrutiny.

Regulatory risk therefore comes from several directions rather than one industry-specific framework.

Operational Complexity

Running global fulfilment networks, data centers, physical stores, media services, healthcare operations, and digital platforms creates significant management complexity.

Forecasting errors, staffing constraints, service interruptions, supply-chain problems, or incorrect capacity planning can increase costs or damage customer experience.

Competitive Pressure

Amazon faces strong competitors in nearly every major business.

The skills required to compete successfully in retail are not identical to those required in cloud computing, advertising, entertainment, healthcare, or AI infrastructure.

Diversification provides multiple growth engines, but it also requires Amazon to defend several competitive positions simultaneously.

Technology and Cybersecurity

AWS, Amazon's commerce platform, customer accounts, payment systems, and other digital services depend on large-scale technology infrastructure.

Security failures, outages, software problems, data issues, or cyberattacks could disrupt operations and damage trust.

Execution Risk in New Markets

Entering a large market does not guarantee that Amazon will develop the same competitive position it has in commerce or cloud infrastructure.

Healthcare, devices, entertainment, and AI involve different economics and competitive conditions.

Amazon's resources give it room to experiment, but those investments still need to produce customer value and sustainable economics.

Key Facts About Amazon

1. Amazon is both a retailer and a marketplace infrastructure provider. It can earn revenue from transactions involving products Amazon owns and from products owned by independent sellers.

2. AWS emerged from Amazon's technology capabilities but developed into a largely separate enterprise business. Its customer base and economics differ substantially from Amazon Stores.

3. Amazon's three reporting segments do not reflect the full complexity of the operating portfolio. Advertising, subscriptions, Marketplace, physical stores, media, healthcare, and devices operate within the broader North America, International, and AWS reporting structure.

4. Prime changed Amazon's relationship with customers from purely transactional to partly membership-based. Its strategic value extends beyond membership fees.

5.Advertising is unusually complementary to Amazon's marketplace model. Merchants can pay Amazon for access to customers, fulfilment infrastructure, and additional product visibility.

6. Several major Amazon acquisitions added capabilities rather than merely revenue. Whole Foods added physical grocery infrastructure, MGM added entertainment assets, Twitch expanded livestreaming, and One Medical added primary-care capabilities.

7. Amazon operates at both consumer and enterprise scale. Retail and Prime are highly consumer-facing, while AWS and Amazon Business give the company substantial B2B exposure.

8. AI is being developed across multiple layers of Amazon's technology stack. The company is investing in infrastructure, custom chips, models, development platforms, and AI applications.

9. Amazon's businesses do not all reinforce one another in the same way. Marketplace, advertising, fulfilment, and Prime have direct commerce relationships, while AWS is strategically connected more through infrastructure capabilities.

10. Amazon's Leadership Principles function as an operating framework as well as a cultural statement. They provide common decision rules across a very large and decentralized organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

H3: Who founded Amazon?

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. The company began selling books online in 1995.

H3: Who is the CEO of Amazon?

Andy Jassy is Amazon's President and Chief Executive Officer. He became CEO in 2021 after previously leading AWS.

Jeff Bezos remains involved with Amazon as Executive Chair.

H3: What does Amazon do?

Amazon operates businesses across online retail, third-party marketplaces, cloud computing, advertising, subscriptions, entertainment, devices, logistics, grocery, healthcare, and artificial intelligence.

H3: How does Amazon make money?

Amazon earns revenue through direct retail sales, third-party seller services, AWS cloud services, advertising, subscriptions, physical stores, and other services.

Different parts of the business have very different economics, so Amazon should not be analyzed as one uniform retail operation.

H3: What is Amazon Web Services?

Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is Amazon's cloud-computing business.

It provides computing, storage, databases, networking, security, analytics, machine learning, generative AI, and other technology infrastructure to organizations.

H3: Why is AWS important to Amazon?

AWS is important because it contributes substantial operating income while giving Amazon a major position in enterprise technology.

In 2025, AWS generated approximately $128.7 billion in sales and $45.6 billion in operating income.

H3: What are Amazon's three reporting segments?

Amazon reports three operating segments:

• North America;

• International;

• AWS.

These segments should not be confused with individual businesses such as advertising, Prime, Marketplace, entertainment, devices, and healthcare.

H3: Is Amazon only an e-commerce company?

No.

E-commerce remains a major part of Amazon, but the company also operates AWS, advertising, subscriptions, entertainment services, consumer devices, physical grocery stores, healthcare services, logistics infrastructure, and AI businesses.

H3: Where is Amazon headquartered?

Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Resources:

The financial, leadership, acquisition, and technology information in this company profile is based primarily on Amazon's official corporate disclosures and primary-source documentation.

• Amazon Investor Relations — Q4 and Full-Year 2025 Results

• Amazon Investor Relations — Q2 2026 Results

• Amazon Investor Relations — Officers and Directors

• Amazon Leadership Principles

• AWS — Our Origins

• Amazon — Whole Foods Market Acquisition Announcement

• Amazon — Twitch Acquisition Announcement

• Amazon — One Medical Acquisition Announcement

• Amazon — MGM Acquisition Announcement

• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy — 2025 Letter to Shareholders