Amazon and Apple beat earnings forecasts

NEW YORK

Amazon and Apple have reported earnings that topped market expectations, aiming for even better days ahead with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

"Inside Amazon, every one of our teams is working on building generative AI applications that reinvent and enhance their customers' experience," chief executive Andy Jassy said during an earnings call.

Apple views AI and machine learning as "core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build," company boss Tim Cook told analysts while discussing the iPhone maker's quarterly earnings.

"It's absolutely critical to us," Cook said of AI.

"We've been doing research across a wide range of AI technologies, including generative AI for years," Cook said.

Apple reported modestly higher profits in the recently ended quarter despite another dip in revenues, as a record performance in services offset lower iPhone sales.

Profits for Apple's third fiscal quarter were $19.9 billion, up 2.3 percent from the year-ago period. Revenues again declined, this time by 1.4 percent to $81.8 billion, the third straight quarter with a year-over-year decline.

Amazon reported a quarterly profit that trounced market expectations, driven by strong sales helped by its annual Prime discount event.

The e-commerce giant said it made a profit of $6.7 billion in the recently ended quarter, eclipsing earnings forecasts.

Order delivery speeds in the US were the fastest ever, with Amazon continuing to work on optimizing efficiency and lowering costs at fulfillment centers, according to the company.

Revenue taken in by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit increased to $22 billion in a year-over-year comparison, but costs climbed as well, resulting in a lower operating income than in the same period in 2022.

Amazon is seeing more businesses focus on shifting systems to the cloud, where they can save money and tap into AI capabilities, Jassy said on the earnings call.

AWS is investing heavily in being a place where AI models are trained and put to work for businesses, according to Jassy.