Amazon raked in £150billion – or £50billion a month – over the Christmas quarter. That means its revenues are likely to have overtaken those of US supermarket Walmart for the first time. The online giant’s 10 per cent rise in sales in the final three months of 2024 brought its total for the year to a record £513billion. Rival Walmart is projected to announce quarterly sales of £145billion on February 20, according to analysts.
With annual profits almost doubling from £24.4billion to £47.6billion, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said the quarter ‘was the most successful yet’. But it warned sales in the current quarter are predicted to be lower than expected at between £121billion and £125billion. It blamed an ‘unusually large, unfavourable impact’ from foreign exchange rates. LSEG analysts had expected up to £127.5billion.
Raking it in: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos attended Donald Trump’s inauguration. The update comes as big tech firms fight for dominance with artificial intelligence (AI). Amazon is set to unveil a new version of its ‘Alexa’ voice assistant, with AI used to have conversations with users, later this month. Alexa operates in cars, televisions, thermostats and mobile phones. Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos attended Donald Trump’s inauguration, is set to reap rewards after the US President removed a tax loophole that aided Chinese rivals Shein and Temu.
Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, reckons Amazon could boost market share by up to 5pc, adding: ‘The best thing that ever happened to Amazon was Trump taking office.’. The Amazon results came after fellow US tech titan Alphabet, the parent company of Google, posted annual sales of £280billion on Tuesday. It comes after Silicon Valley was rocked by the launch of an AI chatbot developed by Chinese firm DeepSeek. Investors were spooked by claims it could compete with US rivals.
