Amazon owns Amazon Web Services, the global cloud-computing platform commonly known as AWS.
AWS began offering services in the mid-2000s and developed into a major provider of computing power, storage, databases, networking, and machine-learning tools. Customers can rent these resources instead of building all the required physical infrastructure themselves.
Amazon originally became famous as an online bookstore and then expanded into a broad retail marketplace. Its cloud division added an important business beyond consumer shopping and became a major factor considered by investors valuing Amazon.
AWS is sometimes confused with Amazon’s retail website because both carry the Amazon name. They serve different primary markets: retail customers and sellers on one side, and businesses, governments, and developers needing digital infrastructure on the other.