Apple and Amazon post better-than-expected second-quarter earnings

San Francisco. American giants Apple and Amazon reported better-than-expected net profits in the second quarter of the year, driven by cloud services and developments in the area of ​​artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Apple reported net profits of $21.45 billion between April and June (the third quarter of its fiscal year), despite falling iPhone sales.

The Californian technology company had sales of $85.78 billion, more than analysts had expected, who were expecting $84.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg agency, thanks in particular to an increase in sales of services.

Revenue was a new record for the quarter and up 5 percent from the same period last year, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement.

Cook added that the company hopes to share new tools with users that involve Apple Intelligence, referring to its set of AI-based features.

“For better or worse, Apple has tied its AI efforts to other key parts of its core business, particularly the iPhone,” said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne.
Amazon reports lower sales than expected

Amazon posted a net profit of $13.5 billion in the second quarter of the year, a much better result than expected by the market, driven mainly by its cloud business (remote computing) and AI.

However, the online retail giant’s turnover, with a turnover of 148 billion dollars – a ten percent increase in one year – disappointed analysts, who had expected slightly higher results.

Amazon shares fell more than 4 percent in after-hours trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, trading at $176.50.

Revenue at cloud computing unit AWS rose to $26.3 billion from $22.1 billion a year earlier, according to the earnings report.

“We continue to make progress in a number of areas, but most importantly in the continued reacceleration of AWS growth,” said AWS President Andy Jassy, ​​quoted in the statement announcing the results.

“While Amazon has multiple levers it can pull, the outlook is increasingly difficult… Amazon will remain highly profitable, but the pace at which it can grow its earnings appears to be slowing,” said Neil Saunders, chief executive of consultancy GlobalData.