(Reuters) – Amazon reported on Thursday of sales higher than the expectations in the fourth quarter, but the results of its dematerialized computer division (“cloud”) disappointed, as well as the forecast of annual turnover communicated by the American technological giant.

The title of the group was volatile in the post-closing stock exchange, losing 4% before erasing part of its losses.

Amazon says it expects for the current quarter to sales between $ 151 billion and $ 155 billion, against a consensus that emerged at 158 ​​billion.

It provides for operational profit between $ 14 billion and $ 18 billion over the January-March period, again below the 18.35 billion consensus.

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Division recorded an increase in turnover from 19% to 28.79 billion dollars in the fourth quarter, while analysts anticipated an average of 28.87 billion according to LSEG data.

Its Microsoft and Alphabet rivals have also published disappointing results for their cloud activities in the fourth quarter.

These data are able to fuel the impatience and concern of investors about billions of dollars deployed by the large firms of “Tech” to develop their IA infrastructure.

Investors want to collect the fruits of these expenses, while the presentation in January by the Chinese firm Deepseek of an AI model presented as superior if not equal to American models, at a lower cost, rocked Wall Street.

“After very solid data in the third quarter, growth rates did not meet expectations,” said Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust.

“This is what the market does not want to hear,” he added, stressing that concerns were fueled by the emergence of new rivals in AI like Deepseek.

Amazon presented new AI models in December that the group hopes for new customers. He should also launch this month the long-awaited version of Alexa equipped with generative AI, as Reuters reported, citing sources to the question.

Thanks to its online commerce activities, the group compensated during the last quarter elapsed the lower results than expected from its cloud division.

Over the period of October-December, online sales increased by 7% to 75.56 billion dollars, beating the consensus which appeared at 74.55 billion.

Amazon has published a quarterly turnover of $ 187.8 billion. Analysts expected an amount of 187.3 billion on average, according to LSEG data.

Advertising sales, which are scrutinized, climbed from 18% to 17.3 billion dollars, against a consensus of 17.4 billion.

The profit per share established in the fourth quarter to 1.86 dollars, largely beating the consensus of 1.49 dollars.

(Deborah Sophia in Bangalore and Greg Bensinger in San Francisco; Jean Terzian)

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