News from Amazon 1 02/2026

Strong Growth, Even Stronger AI Investment - and a Cautious Stock Market

Last Thursday, Amazon published its earnings for the 4th quarter of 2025. Stephan and Maik have already discussed this extensively in the current podcast episode, but we're naturally providing all interested parties with an assessment and overview in our newsletter as well.

Vendor on the Rise

With 10% revenue growth and $83 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, the Vendor business (reported as Online Stores) reaches approximately 39% of total revenue share and was thus able to stop the downward trend.

Advertising and Seller Stable

Both the 3P Services (Seller) segment and the Advertising segment grew as expected: Seller by 11% with $52.8 billion in revenue and Advertising with a solid 23% growth and $21.3 billion in revenue.

As expected, AWS (Amazon Web Services) is primarily responsible for cash flow at Amazon: With 24% growth, this division is growing faster than it has in the last 13 quarters. With $45.6 billion in operating income on $128.7 billion in revenue, a true cash machine for Amazon.

Amazon's Future is AI: The 200 Billion Bet

Not only can Amazon's technology division around custom chips like Graviton and Trainium2 and 3 show a revenue run rate of $10 billion: Amazon is increasing its planned investments in AI from $160 to $200 billion for 2026.

Amazon is transforming at an incredible speed into an integrated AI infrastructure company and is divesting areas like Stores and other technological gimmicks to maintain focus.

Amazon Prohibited from Using Price Control Mechanisms

The German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt) has banned Amazon from systematically influencing the pricing of third-party sellers on the German marketplace. Amazon may only use price control mechanisms in exceptional cases such as price gouging and in accordance with regulatory requirements. The decision is based on abuse provisions for large digital companies (§ 19a para. 2 GWB) as well as § 19 GWB and Article 102 TFEU.

For the first time since the 2023 reform, the Bundeskartellamt used the option to skim off the economic advantage. Since the antitrust violation is ongoing, an initial partial amount of around 59 million euros was set. The decision is not yet final – Amazon can file an appeal within one month, which would then be decided by the Federal Court of Justice.

Amazon on a Confrontational Course

Just hours later, Amazon responded with a public post on its own German blog.

Amazon is vehemently defending itself against the German Competition Authority's decision and plans to appeal. The authority demands that Amazon also highlight non-competitive prices, which in the company's view violates EU competition law and disadvantages Amazon as the only German retailer.

Amazon emphasizes that over 47,500 German selling partners set their prices freely and independently. The company argues that highlighting non-competitive prices would both damage customer trust and the success of selling partners.

During the legal dispute, Amazon wants to continue operating its store as usual so that customers and selling partners do not experience any disruptions. Country Manager Rocco Bräuniger questions whether the German regulation actually promotes innovation, competition, and consumer interests.

Is Amazon Actually Right with Its Own View?

We looked at a few examples where regulation of Buy Box logic is really needed. Stephan reports on his LinkedIn profile in this case about Ritter Sport products on Amazon.

For 2026, we're focusing on new marketing channels to keep you updated with current Amazon updates: Our REVOIC Podcast comes out every Friday and our YouTube channel has been completely revamped and will now regularly deliver fresh content.

We look forward to your feedback!

Strong Focus on Same- and Next-Day Deliveries

Amazon delivered over 13 billion items worldwide on the same or next day to Prime members in 2025 – a new speed record for the third time in a row. In the USA alone, over 8 billion items were delivered with Same-Day or Next-Day Delivery, representing an increase of over 30% compared to the previous year.

Product Categories and Assortments in Focus

Half of all Same-Day and Next-Day deliveries in the USA were for groceries and everyday essentials. Since the launch of Prime in 2005 with 1 million items (mainly DVDs, CDs, and books), the selection has grown to over 300 million items in 35 categories, with tens of millions available for Same-Day or Next-Day Delivery.

How It Will Continue

Same-Day and Next-Day Delivery was expanded to over 4,000 smaller cities and rural areas in 44 US states by converting existing rural delivery stations into hybrid hubs. This resulted from a $4 billion investment in the rural delivery network.

Advanced AI models predict where, when, and which products should be stored in the fulfillment network to bring the right selection closer to customers and enable shorter delivery times.

The expansion of the Same-Day Delivery network led to a 70% increase in items delivered within one day in 2025 compared to the previous year. Same-Day Delivery is now available in over 9,000 US cities, including major cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles as well as rural communities.