Amazon Enters $3 Trillion Club as AI, Cloud Growth Power Rally

Aug 3 (Reuters) - Amazon's market value topped $3 trillion for the first time on Monday, helped by a sharp rally ​following strong earnings and signs that the AI boom ‌is driving fresh demand for its cloud-computing services, the company's main profit engine.

Its shares were last up 5.5% at $286.20, hitting a record high and ​taking their yearly gains to over 23%.

The Seattle-based e-commerce ​and cloud computing giant's stock surged 15% on Friday ⁠after it delivered its strongest cloud growth in more than four ​years and raised its annual capital spending forecast.

Amazon and Microsoft are the ​only two of the "Magnificent Seven" companies, out of the six that have reported so far, whose AI spending has paid off in investors' eyes. Tesla, Alphabet ​and Meta were punished as their massive spending plans hit free ​cash flow last quarter.

Along with other tech giants on Wall Street, Amazon has ‌been ⁠pouring billions to build out its AI infrastructure. It disclosed a new investment in Anthropic in April, which follows Amazon's announcement earlier this year that it would invest up to $50 billion in ​OpenAI.

It took just ​over two years ⁠for the company, founded by Jeff Bezos back in 1994, to add another trillion dollars to ​its market value after hitting a $2 trillion valuation ​for ⁠the first time in June 2024.

Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Nvidia are the other companies that have recorded a market value of $3 trillion ⁠in ​the past. Nvidia is currently the world's ​biggest company with a market capitalization close to $5 trillion.