Amazon's AWS Growth Lifts Major Indexes to Weekly Gains

Amazon's second-quarter earnings report lifted major indexes to weekly gains on Friday. The tech giant reported revenue of $200.6 billion, exceeding analyst expectations. Its cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), generated $42.2 billion in revenue, a 37% year-over-year increase.

This growth rate is AWS's fastest in 18 quarters and helped ease investor concerns about the rising costs of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy put these fears to bed with the company's strong performance.

The broader market reflected Amazon's optimism, with the S&P 500 rising 0.70% to close at 7,489.72 points, and the Nasdaq gaining 1% to 25,373.85. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.53% to reach 52,485.03.

Microsoft's strong earnings report earlier in the week also helped calm market jitters about AI capital expenditures by tech giants. Azure cloud revenue grew 43% year-over-year, according to Reuters.