Amazon's Profits by Year
Amazon's profits by year according to macrotrends.net
1994: 0
1995: -0.3 million
1996: -5.8 million
1997: -27.6 million
1998: -124.5 million
1999: -719.0 million
2000: -1.411 billion
2001: -567 million
2002: -149 million
2003: 35 million
2004: 588 million
2005: 359 million
2006: 190 million
2007: 476 million
2008: 645 million
2009: 902 million
2010: 1.152 billion
2011: 631 million
2012: -39 million
2013: 274 million
2014: -241 million
2015: 596 million
2016: 2.371 billion
2017: 3.033 billion
2018: 10.073 billion
2019: 11.588 billion
2020: 21.331 billion
2021: 33.364 billion
2022: -2.722 billion
2023: 30.425 billion
2024: 59.248 billion
2025: 77.670 billion
2014 was basically the culmination of Amazon's "growth first, profits later" strategy colliding with a few expensive bets that didn't pay off immediately.
The biggest factors were:
- Heavy spending on fulfillment centers, logistics, technology, and international expansion.
- Large investments in AWS data centers while AWS revenue was growing rapidly but was not yet being reported separately. CIO: Amazon opens up about AWS revenues
- The failure of the Fire Phone, which led to a roughly $170 million write-down and inventory charge. Harvard: Fire Phone — Amazon's $170 million fiasco
- Continued pressure from low retail margins as Amazon prioritized growth and market share over earnings. Amazon's 2014 Form 10-K
What's interesting is that 2014 wasn't really a business collapse. Revenue grew strongly, operating cash flow increased, and AWS was becoming a major business. Amazon lost about $241 million for the full year, but many of the investments made around that period—especially AWS and logistics infrastructure—became major profit drivers later. Amazon's 2014 earnings release
In hindsight, 2014 looks less like a bad year and more like a major investment phase before profits increased sharply: 2014 −$241M → 2015 +$596M → 2016 +$2.37B → 2018 +$10.07B → 2020 +$21.33B → 2024 +$59.25B.