Amazon Q4 2025 Earnings Review

In case you missed it:

a. Key Points

Beat revenue estimates by 0.9% & beat guidance by 1.9%.
- The foreign exchange (FX) growth tailwind was 150 basis points (bps; 1 basis point = 0.01%) vs. 190 bps expected.
Slightly missed North America revenue estimates by 0.1%.
Beat AWS revenue estimates by 2%.
- This was the fastest rate of AWS growth since Q3 2022. Strength was broad-based and acceleration was not aided by abnormally easy comps. At the same time, the Anthropic ramp and a half quarter of OpenAI ramping both helped a lot.
- The AWS backlog grew by 40% Y/Y and 22% Q/Q to $244B. This represents $44B in added Q/Q backlog vs. $5B last quarter and $6B the quarter before. Again, Anthropic and OpenAI helped a ton.
Beat International revenue estimates by 2%.
Slightly beat ad revenue estimates.
Beat online store revenue estimates by 0.9%.

Beat EBIT estimate by 1.6% & beat guidance by 6.4%
- Ex-special charges, Q4 2025 EBIT margin would have been 12.8% & Q3 2025 EBIT margin would have been 12%. The other periods were not impacted.
- This quarter, special charges included $1.1B to resolve an Italian tax dispute (hit international EBIT), $730M in severance (hit all 3 segments) and $610M in physical store asset impairment (hit North America segment) tied to its grocery business model change covered during the quarter.
Missed $1.96 EPS estimate by $0.01.
CapEx was 13% higher than expected.