Leaders | Everything in store

As Amazon turns 30, three factors will define its next decade

It will have to deal with trustbusters, catch up on AI and revive its core business

An Amazon box wrapped with a gold bow
Illustration: Ricardo Rey

About a week ago Amazon joined an exclusive club. Its market value ticked over $2trn, putting it in the company of only four other firms: Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. In its 30 years Amazon, which began life as an online bookseller in Seattle on July 5th 1994, has been astonishingly successful. Its network of warehouses and vans delivers more packages each year than FedEx or UPS, equivalent to $850bn-worth of goods worldwide. Its pioneering cloud-computing business is used by millions of customers and generates annual revenues of $100bn. Beyond its core operations, it is investing in delivery drones, satellite networks and self-driving cars.

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This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Everything in store”

From the July 6th 2024 edition

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