{
  "id": 18123,
  "title": "Amazon's Q2 was great, but the earnings release is packed with baloney",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/31/amazons-q2-was-great-but-the-earnings-release-is-packed-with-baloney",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-07-31T00:08:45.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/paas-and-iaas/2026/07/31/amazon-q2-earnings-strong-results-much-baloney-in-press-release-corey-quinn/5281486"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Amazon disclosed its earnings for Q2, earning praise for impressive growth. However, the earnings release appears to contain misleading statements. AWS announced the availability of its coding agent Kiro on iOS, but in reality, it's only accessible through Apple's developer beta testing tool, with limited users invited to try it. This practice of \"shading the truth\" raises questions about potential omissions in the report. The company claims its AI business and chips business are both exceeding $25 billion, but it's unclear if these figures overlap. Additionally, the claim that Bedrock customers spent more in Q2 than all prior quarters combined is misleading, as it implies an unprecedented growth when the data from the past 90 days merely outperformed the other 10 quarters. The AWS operating margin of 39.4% appears impressive, but it's essential to note that this figure includes roughly $600 million of mark-to-market gains on energy derivative contracts. Once these gains are excluded, AWS margins rise back to the range analysts had modeled. Amazon also hedges electricity costs, and these hedges paid off significantly in this quarter. However, this margin boost is considered \"noise\" and will not be factored into future guidance. The chips business, which is not selling any chips, is described as having a $25 billion run rate. This category exists to make headlines comparable to Nvidia's data center numbers but is actually just infrastructure rental with a significant portion being memory revenue. CEO Jeff Bezos admitted that memory costs have skyrocketed, impacting the chips business revenue. Lastly, Jeff Bezos stated that only a small fraction of Bedrock's workloads run on Trainium, which is part of the company's $25 billion chips business. Jassy mentioned that Amazon is actively in conversation with customers about selling Trainium separately from their cloud services in the future, but as of now, no chips have been sold.",
  "summary": "\"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies\"",
  "key_points": [
    "AWS Kiro coding agent only accessible via Apple's developer beta testing tool",
    "AWS AI and chips businesses revenue figures potentially overlapping",
    "AWS operating margin of 39.4% includes $600 million mark-to-market gains"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "title": "Amazon's Q2 was great, but the earnings release is packed with baloney",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/31/amazons-q2-was-great-but-the-earnings-release-is-packed-with-baloney-18838",
        "published": "2026-07-31T00:08:45.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}