Amazon owns Amazon Web Services, one of the world’s largest cloud platforms.
Amazon Web Services, commonly abbreviated AWS, began offering services in 2006. It lets customers rent computing infrastructure and use managed services through the internet instead of building every server and data system themselves. AWS serves startups, major corporations, governments, and researchers.
Amazon is best known to consumers for its online retail marketplace, but its corporate activities also include cloud computing, digital advertising, streaming media, devices, and logistics. AWS became especially important to Amazon’s financial results because cloud services can generate substantial operating income.
AWS is not a separate publicly traded company. It is a segment of Amazon.com, Inc., so Amazon’s market capitalization includes the value investors place on retail, cloud, advertising, entertainment, and other operations together.