Amazon operates the AWS cloud platform.
Amazon Web Services, usually called AWS, provides on-demand computing, storage, databases, networking, machine learning, and other internet services. It launched in 2006, initially offering services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
Amazon began as an online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It expanded into a broad retail marketplace, logistics network, digital media business, devices operation, and cloud-services provider. AWS became especially important because it serves businesses, governments, universities, and startups rather than only Amazon's retail customers.
AWS and Amazon.com are parts of the same company but serve different primary purposes. AWS is also frequently confused with Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, which compete in the same cloud infrastructure market.