AWS Cloud Revenue Jumps 45% in Q4, Microsoft Azure Revenue Up 76%

Amazon and Microsoft, the No. 1 and No. 2 public cloud providers, both reported earnings this week and said their respective cloud businesses again drove overall profits.On Thursday, Amazon reported that fourth-quarter revenues increased 20 percent year over year to $72.4 billion in 2018. Operating income grew to $3.8 billion in quarter, an 81 percent year-over-year increase. And for the full year, operating income jumped nearly 203 percent, hitting $12.4 billion.The company’s cloud unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), saw revenue increase 45 percent, to $7.4 billion in the quarter. AWS’s operating income jumped 61 percent, to $2.18 billion.But Amazon’s first-quarter guidance disappointed analysts and sent its stock falling more than 4 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday and into Friday. The company forecast first-quarter 2019 revenue of between $56 billion and $60 billion, or between 10 percent and 18 percent growth compared with first quarter of 2018.