Amazon.com reported quarterly results above Wall Street’s expectations on Tuesday, as interest in artificial intelligence helped drive cloud-computing growth.

According to a Reuters report, Amazon’s push to build out its advertising business helped results in the quarter.

The company took in $11.8 billion in ad sales, up 24 percent from a year earlier. The company this year added unskippable ads to its Prime Video streaming offering, which, company CEO Andy Jassy said, marketers are excited about. Customers can opt out for $2.99 per month.

A media statement put out by Amazon on its quarterly financial results on April 30, accessed by Indianbroadcastingworld.com, stated many media and entertainment related initiatives, including that Prime Video will stream its first NFL Wild Card playoff game in January 2025.

Prime Video, which is home to Thursday Night Football, will have exclusive rights to air an opening round playoff game.

It added that 12 awards were earned from Amazon MGM Studios film ‘American Fiction’, including nine for Best Adapted Screenplay by writer/director Cord Jefferson. These include an Academy Award, BAFTA Film Award, Critics Choice Award, two Independent Spirit Awards, and two Writers Guild of America Awards.

Prime Video’s international slate of content also grew with more than 30 local Amazon Originals, including ‘Operación Triunfo’ (Spain), Prime Video’s first weekly live entertainment show, which was watched by more than 3.5 million unique viewers in Spain; ‘Indian Police Force’ (India), which had the most viewers complete the entire first season for any Amazon India Original in its launch week; and ‘Last One Laughing’ (Mexico) season 6, which is the longest running edition of the hit global franchise.

The statement added that Amazon.com’s net sales increased 13 percent to $143.3 billion in the first quarter, compared with $127.4 billion in the first quarter 2023. Excluding the $0.2 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 13 percent compared with first quarter 2023.

International segment sales increased 10 percent year-over-year to $31.9 billion, or increased 11 percent excluding changes in foreign exchange rates.

Net income increased to $10.4 billion in the first quarter, or $0.98 per diluted share, compared with $3.2 billion, or $0.31 per diluted share, in the first quarter 2023.

 CEO Andy Jassy told analysts that for Amazon “there is a big opportunity in front of us” in servicing AI customers.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, according to the Reuters report, told reporters on a call that capital spending would increase throughout the year, compared with $14 billion in the first quarter. “That will be the low point for the year as far as capex by quarter,” he said.

“The majority of that will be to support AWS infrastructure and in particular generative AI efforts,” he said later on a call with analysts. Amazon is investing upfront to build out its AI offerings to meet customer demand, particularly as customers seek out longer-term contracts, he said.

The company ended the quarter with 1.52 million employees, about 4,000 fewer than at year-end 2023, but higher than a year earlier by 56,000. That was despite Amazon cutting at least 27,000 jobs last year and continuing to trim positions across a number of units.