Amazon holds steady, despite tariff trouble and White House drama

Despite posting strong financial results on Thursday, Amazon hasn’t shaken the uncertainty around tariffs hovering above it.

A trade war between the U.S. and China has escalated since President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs in early April, leaving tech companies like Amazon and Apple exposed to rising costs for crucial parts of their businesses.

The rest of the tech industry has been shaken up, with share prices for Microsoft and Meta experiencing roller coaster rides. But for them, the consequences for tariffs are less clear. Companies like Amazon sell goods from sellers either based in China or who source goods from the country.

Because of that uncertainty, the Seattle-based e-commerce giant issued a wider projection than usual for financial results from the months of April through June, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said during a call with analysts and investors Thursday.

Amazon expects operating income to be between $13 billion and $17.5 billion, compared to the $14.7 billion it reported over the same period last year. The company reported almost $155.7 billion in revenue for the first three months of the year and over $17.1 billion in profit, beating Wall Street expectations.

But going forward, Amazon added tariff and trade policies to the list of risks in its financial guidance.

“It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen with tariffs right now,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during the earnings call. “It’s hard to tell where they’re going to settle and when they’re going to settle.”

But despite that, Jassy said the company is “optimistic” it can pull out of trade-related headwinds stronger, like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain issues that followed.

“When you have the broadest selection like we do, and 2 million-plus global sellers like we do, you’re better positioned to help customers find whatever items matter to them at lower price points than elsewhere,” he said.

Amazon’s financial results from Thursday measure the company’s performance from January through the end of March, before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.

The company hasn’t seen reduced demand and has even had a surge of demand in certain categories, which could mean consumers are stocking up in anticipation of any tariff impact.

Prices haven’t crept up for the company in any appreciable way yet, which Jassy chalked up to the company stocking up on goods and third-party sellers getting product to the U.S. in advance.

But CNBC reported in late April that Amazon sellers were hiking prices as higher import costs hit them. Amazon said the research behind the report covered a small fraction of the online marketplace.

Jassy said the company is “heads down, pretty maniacally focused on” keeping prices low.

Leading up to earnings this week, the company caught the ire of the Trump administration over tariffs. Political news outlet Punchbowl News reported Tuesday that Amazon was rolling out a feature that showed how much tariffs added to the price of each product.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the news a “hostile and political act.” CNN reported that Trump called Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos to complain about the report.

Amazon denied the feature was ever going to be rolled out to the entire online store. A spokesperson said the team that runs Amazon Haul, the company’s Temu competitor, considered the idea on certain products but it was never approved.

On Thursday, Amazon reported stellar results for its growing advertising business. The division brought in $13.9 billion, a 19% improvement from a year prior, the strongest growth out of any revenue segment.

Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud division, missed Wall Street expectations for the third quarter in a row. The company reported $29.3 billion in cloud revenue, up 17% from the year before.

Amazon’s share price fell 4% in after-hours trading. It’s dropped over 13% so far this year.