Amazon founded Amazon Web Services, the cloud business commonly abbreviated AWS.
Amazon Web Services launched in 2006 with services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. These products allowed customers to rent storage and computing capacity instead of building all of their own physical infrastructure.
Amazon originally developed much of the underlying technology to support its online retail operations. It later turned those capabilities into a commercial cloud platform serving startups, governments, universities, and large corporations.
Amazon remains associated with online shopping, but its business also includes cloud computing, advertising, digital content, logistics, devices, and subscription services. Because AWS can produce substantial operating income, investors often examine it separately when assessing Amazon’s overall valuation and market capitalization.