Amazon will report first‑quarter earnings on Wednesday, highlighting a surge in cloud demand and a record $200 billion capital‑spending plan aimed at expanding AI infrastructure. The move underscores the firm’s focus on sustaining growth amid rising depreciation costs. Industry analysts note that Amazon’s cloud business is in high demand, with a $244 billion revenue backlog and blockbuster deals with Meta , OpenAI and Anthropic . The company’s custom chip business has doubled in a matter of months, further bolstering its AI capabilities. Wall Street expects Amazon to report about $177 billion in first‑quarter revenue, up roughly 14% from a year ago, and earnings of $1.65 per share, a 4% rise that reflects growing depreciation costs. Operating‑income guidance ranges from $16.5 billion to $21.5 billion, a spread that reflects uncertainty around tariff impacts on retail and $1 billion in new costs from its satellite internet project, Amazon Leo. AWS is projected to generate $36.8 billion in revenue, up nearly 26% YoY, with growth accelerating for three straight quarters (17%, 20%, 24%). On the fourth‑quarter earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy described the AI market as a “barbell,” noting that the massive opportunity lies in core enterprise production workloads that have yet to move to AI. He added that “the lion’s share of that demand is still yet to come,” suggesting that AWS growth may soon be driven by a broader base of enterprise customers. Beyond the cloud, Amazon’s retail arm saw online store sales grow 10% to $83 billion in the holiday quarter, while third‑party seller services brought in $52.8 billion. Shipping costs rose 10% YoY to $31.5 billion. The company has also cut costs aggressively, eliminating about 16,000 corporate jobs in January and further trimming its robotics unit in March. Advertising revenue grew 23% to $21.3 billion, positioning it as a key profit engine alongside AWS. Looking ahead, Amazon’s aggressive AI and cloud expansion is expected to continue driving revenue growth, while its cost‑cutting initiatives aim to improve margins. The firm’s ability to capture the growing demand for enterprise AI workloads will be a key determinant of its future performance.