Amazon.com

What it is

Amazon.com Inc. is a US technology conglomerate headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It operates across five primary segments: North American e-commerce, international retail, Amazon Web Services (AWS), advertising, and subscription services including Prime. AWS is the world's largest cloud infrastructure provider, holding roughly one-third of global cloud infrastructure spending. In 2025, Amazon posted total net sales of US$716.9 billion, up 12% from 2024. AWS generated US$128.7 billion in revenue, a 20% increase year on year, with US$45.6 billion in operating income, making it the company's most profitable segment.

History

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookseller in Bellevue, Washington, in July 1994. The company went public on Nasdaq in May 1997 at US$18 per share. AWS launched as a commercial cloud service in 2006, built on infrastructure Amazon had developed internally. Prime membership launched in 2005. Key acquisitions include Whole Foods Market (US$13.7 billion, 2017) and MGM (US$8.5 billion, 2022). A bid to acquire iRobot collapsed in January 2024 after the European Commission indicated it intended to block the deal. Bezos stepped down as chief executive in July 2021; Andy Jassy, who had built AWS from inception, succeeded him.

Current state

As of July 2026, Amazon faces three concurrent regulatory proceedings. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general filed a monopoly complaint in September 2023 under Sections 2 of the Sherman Act and 5(a) of the FTC Act. US District Judge John Chun denied Amazon's motion to dismiss in significant part in September 2024, allowing the core claims to proceed. Trial is set for October 13, 2026, in US District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. The FTC alleges Amazon illegally sustains its online retail dominance by penalising sellers who list lower prices on rival platforms, biasing search results toward paid advertisements and Amazon-branded products, and conditioning eligibility for Prime shipping on sellers' use of Amazon's own Fulfilment by Amazon service.

In the European Union, the Commission issued a preliminary determination on June 25, 2026, that AWS should be designated a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act, alongside Microsoft Azure, marking the first DMA proceedings specifically targeting cloud infrastructure. The Commission cited AWS's entrenched market position and high switching costs; a formal decision is expected by November 2026. In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority concluded a two-year investigation in July 2025, finding AWS and Azure each hold 30-40% of UK cloud spending, with egress fees and incompatible architectures restricting competitive switching.

On the capital side, Amazon spent US$128.3 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, the majority on AWS data-centre infrastructure. This makes Amazon one of the largest contributors to the global 四大超大规模云厂商2026年资本支出料达约7,250亿美元，增长77% surge, which analysts estimate at roughly US$725 billion across the five largest hyperscalers through 2026.

Relationships

Amazon is the largest external investor in Anthropic, committing up to US$4 billion from September 2023, with AWS designated as Anthropic's preferred cloud provider. The Project Rainier supercomputing cluster, purpose-built in AWS data centres for Anthropic training, is one of the largest disclosed AI compute deployments (see Anthropic locks ~10GW across Amazon, Google/Broadcom and SpaceX). Anthropic's valuation and IPO trajectory directly affect Amazon's balance sheet (see Anthropic closes $65bn Series H at a $965bn valuation, files for IPO). Amazon's Project Kuiper, a 3,236-satellite low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation, began commercial launches in 2025; the first batch of 367 satellites validated the deployment cadence (see 亚马逊Leo突破350颗，FCC豁免半数部署期限后对延误实施处罚).

What to watch

• The FTC bench trial beginning October 13, 2026, before Judge Chun: a ruling could require Amazon to restructure Prime eligibility rules, seller-pricing terms, or search-ranking practices, reshaping the US e-commerce market.
• EU DMA gatekeeper proceedings for AWS: formal designation would impose interoperability and data-portability obligations and constrain egress fees, with a decision targeted by November 2026.
• Whether AWS's US$128.3 billion capex in 2025 translates into inference capacity sufficient to hold its roughly one-third cloud market share as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud accelerate buildouts.
• Anthropic's IPO trajectory (see Anthropic closes $65bn Series H at a $965bn valuation, files for IPO): Amazon's stake would become publicly marked to market, and the AWS-as-preferred-cloud arrangement faces scrutiny post-listing.
• Kuiper's commercial-service launch timeline and whether it can compete with Starlink on enterprise and government pricing (see 亚马逊Leo突破350颗，FCC豁免半数部署期限后对延误实施处罚).