Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw its market capitalization increase by approximately $80.2 billion on Monday, as shares closed up 3.2% at $240.14. The jump came as investors focused on Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to raise prices for GPU capacity blocks by 20% starting July 1, a move that could significantly boost margins in its high-growth cloud computing segment.
The single-day equity value gain of roughly $80 billion dwarfed the $26.4 billion in total U.S. online retail sales generated during Amazon's Prime Day event, which ran from June 23 to June 26. Trading volume on Monday reached 77.62 million shares, 154% of the 65-day average, indicating strong investor interest.
According to AWS pricing tables, hourly per-accelerator rates for EC2 Capacity Blocks reserved for machine learning will increase by 20% across multiple GPU families. The new rates, effective July 1, apply to NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) Blackwell, H100, H200, and A100 instance families. For example, P6-B300 instances will rise from $11.700 to $14.040 per accelerator, while P5 instances in U.S. regions will increase from $4.326 to $5.191.
Analysts noted that the price hike targets a specific product set—EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML—which allow customers to reserve high-powered compute for up to six months. AWS states that fees are charged upfront and that Savings Plans and Reserved Instance discounts do not apply. This pricing strategy could enhance AWS margins, which already posted operating income of $14.2 billion on $37.6 billion in sales during the first quarter.
The broader market also rallied on Monday, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.18%, the Nasdaq Composite rising 2.07%, and the Nasdaq 100 advancing 2.25%. Amazon's stock outperformed these indices, though it remains 13.8% below its 52-week high of $278.56 and down 6.39% over the past month.
Prime Day sales data from Adobe, reported by Retail Dive, showed U.S. online spending of $26.4 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year. However, the average order size fell to $47.66 from $53.34, suggesting consumers are seeking discounts amid economic fatigue. CFRA analyst Arun Sundaram noted potential tailwinds from tax refunds, while AlixPartners' Sonia Lapinsky described a "fatigued consumer" spreading spending across multiple retailers' sales events.
Amazon's first-quarter results showed AWS revenue growing 28% year-over-year, with CEO Andy Jassy calling it the "fastest growth in 15 quarters." The company's in-house chip business reached a $20 billion revenue run rate, and free cash flow stood at $1.2 billion over the trailing twelve months, impacted by higher AI-related capital expenditures.
Looking ahead, Amazon guided second-quarter net sales between $194 billion and $199 billion, with operating income of $20 billion to $24 billion, including the Prime Day period. The stock's recent performance suggests that AWS's pricing power and AI infrastructure investments are becoming more critical to valuation than retail sales metrics.
