Sales in Amazon’s online stores rose 11% in the second quarter ending June 30, 2025, hitting $61.5 billion—thanks in part, the company said, by its biggest Prime Day ever. The double-digit gain came despite fears consumers might be pulling back their spending because of an uncertain economy.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told analysts in a conference call much of the news around the impact of tariffs has been wrong, but he did acknowledge that most of the products consumers bought in the second quarter came from inventory that Amazon already had in stock. He said it was unclear who would absorb the higher costs once tariffs kick in.

The company’s third-party seller business also had a good quarter, with sales up 11% to $40.3 billion.

But for industry analysts, the most important part of the Amazon story was about its cloud service, AWS, and its AI efforts. AWS once again delivered the bulk of Amazon’s operating income in the second quarter—$10.2 billion out of $19.2 billion on sales of $30.9 billion. But analysts had been expecting stronger numbers.

For the financial community, Amazon’s future is largely tied to AI and there is a sense Amazon is falling behind competitors like Meta and Microsoft. Jassy tried to allay any concerns ticking off a number of AI-related efforts including DeepFleet, which "improves robot travel efficiency by 10%" and means faster delivery times and lower costs while also handling more of the physically demanding tasks.

"This combination of robotics and generative AI is just getting started," Jassy said, "and while we've made significant progress, it's still early with respect to what will roll out in the next few years." To help fund the AI rollout, Amazon expects to spend about $31 billion in each of the next two quarters, much of that to grow its AWS network.

Jassy called AI "the biggest technology transformation for a lifetime." He added that "every single area that I can think of in the way we work is likely going to be impacted in some meaningful way by AI." He said when there is a big shift like this, companies can either embrace and shape it or walk away—and he made clear Amazon is going to embrace it.

Amazon's commitment to AI and other technology has led some analysts to wonder if the company should split into two parts—one a pure tech company and the other more consumer facing. The consensus, however, is that nothing like that will happen anytime soon.