Amazon jumps more than 12% before the U.S. open as memory-chip stocks rally
Amazon shares rose more than 12% before the U.S. market opened on July 31, as strong cloud-business performance, driven by surging corporate AI spending, lifted the stock. Memory-chip shares also moved higher in premarket trading. Amazon reported second-quarter 2026 results on July 31. Revenue reached $200.6 billion, up 20% from a year earlier. Operating profit was $27.5 billion, an increase of 43%, while net income was $62.6 billion, compared with $18.2 billion a year earlier, an increase of about 244%. AWS recorded its fastest growth in nearly 18 quarters, with revenue rising 37% year over year to $42.232 billion, exceeding analyst expectations. Its operating margin reached 39.4%, far ahead of the other two major cloud providers. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy disclosed two key figures in the earnings report: The annualized revenue run rates for AWS's AI business and its internally developed chip business had each surpassed $25 billion, and both businesses recorded triple-digit percentage growth. During the earnings call, Jassy said AWS was seeing strong growth in both AI and non-AI areas. Its backlog reached a record $496 billion. That figure does not include Anthropic's agreement worth more than $100 billion, suggesting that actual demand could be even higher. “AWS is thriving and is supporting most of Amazon's growth,” Jassy said. “We have long believed that AWS could become a business with revenue in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Today, we believe its revenue will at least double from that level.” Amazon raised its full-year capital-expenditure guidance from $200 billion to $220 billion, with most of the spending earmarked for artificial intelligence and data-center operations. “Even with capital expenditures increased to the levels described above, we still will not be able to meet all of the demand in 2026, and I believe this supply-demand imbalance will continue in 2027,” Jassy said. Memory-chip stocks also continued to rise before the U.S. open. SK Hynix gained more than 7%, while SanDisk, Western Digital, Intel and Marvell Technology each rose more than 5%. On July 31, South Korea's KOSPI index surged 17.91% at the close, its largest one-day gain on record. SK Hynix hit the 30% daily limit, its first such occurrence in the company's history. Samsung Electronics gained 26.81%, bringing its market capitalization back to $1.2 trillion.
Amazon reported second-quarter 2026 results on July 31. Revenue reached $200.6 billion, up 20% from a year earlier. Operating profit was $27.5 billion, an increase of 43%, while net income was $62.6 billion, compared with $18.2 billion a year earlier, an increase of about 244%.
AWS recorded its fastest growth in nearly 18 quarters, with revenue rising 37% year over year to $42.232 billion, exceeding analyst expectations. Its operating margin reached 39.4%, far ahead of the other two major cloud providers.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy disclosed two key figures in the earnings report: The annualized revenue run rates for AWS's AI business and its internally developed chip business had each surpassed $25 billion, and both businesses recorded triple-digit percentage growth.
During the earnings call, Jassy said AWS was seeing strong growth in both AI and non-AI areas. Its backlog reached a record $496 billion. That figure does not include Anthropic's agreement worth more than $100 billion, suggesting that actual demand could be even higher.
“AWS is thriving and is supporting most of Amazon's growth,” Jassy said. “We have long believed that AWS could become a business with revenue in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Today, we believe its revenue will at least double from that level.”
Amazon raised its full-year capital-expenditure guidance from $200 billion to $220 billion, with most of the spending earmarked for artificial intelligence and data-center operations. “Even with capital expenditures increased to the levels described above, we still will not be able to meet all of the demand in 2026, and I believe this supply-demand imbalance will continue in 2027,” Jassy said.
Memory-chip stocks also continued to rise before the U.S. open. SK Hynix gained more than 7%, while SanDisk, Western Digital, Intel and Marvell Technology each rose more than 5%.
On July 31, South Korea's KOSPI index surged 17.91% at the close, its largest one-day gain on record. SK Hynix hit the 30% daily limit, its first such occurrence in the company's history. Samsung Electronics gained 26.81%, bringing its market capitalization back to $1.2 trillion.