Nasdaq 100 continues its strong upward trajectory in 2025, fueled by investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure. The index has gained nearly 13% year-to-date — almost triple the 5.5% return delivered by Amazon shares over the same period. The gap has widened further since Amazon’s disappointing Q2 earnings on July 31. G.business reports, citing original analysis from Renewz.de , that Amazon now ranks in the lower half of Nasdaq 100 performers.
Much of this underperformance is attributed to slower-than-expected growth at Amazon Web Services (AWS) — long considered the company’s main profit engine. In Q2, AWS posted revenue growth of just 17%, significantly trailing Microsoft Azure’s 39% and Google Cloud’s 32%. Investors are beginning to question whether AWS is losing market share and whether Amazon’s aggressive investment in AI is producing sufficient returns.
Meanwhile, competitors like Oracle and Nvidia-backed CoreWeave are attracting capital thanks to their visible AI strategies. Oracle, for example, recently signed a deal to provide OpenAI with 4.5 gigawatts of U.S. data center power. Its stock has soared nearly 50% this year, driven by clear positioning in the AI infrastructure space.
Amazon, by contrast, appears increasingly weighed down by its diversified business model — which spans online retail, advertising, cloud computing, and grocery chains like Whole Foods. Once praised for its breadth, that model is now viewed by some on Wall Street as unfocused in the AI era.
“Amazon is no longer a pure-play bet on AI,” said Eric Clark, portfolio manager at Rational Dynamic Brands Fund. “Investors want thematic clarity — and Amazon looks diluted by too many business lines.”
Even Amazon’s core e-commerce operations, while still the primary revenue driver, are under scrutiny. The company announced plans to double the number of cities offering same-day grocery delivery, underscoring its continued commitment to logistics. Yet such moves don’t excite investors focused on generative AI, large language models, and high-margin software.
In another signal of shifting dynamics, Amazon’s top AI chip engineer Rami Sinno has left the company to join Arm Holdings. Sinno was instrumental in developing Amazon’s in-house chips — Trainium and Inferentia — which were built to power large-scale AI systems. Arm, traditionally a designer of chip architectures used by companies like Apple and Nvidia, announced in July that it would begin investing profits into full chip development. Sinno’s hire marks a strategic leap into the AI hardware race.
These developments paint a picture of a tech giant at a crossroads. Amazon remains dominant in multiple sectors, but its narrative in the 2025 market cycle — dominated by AI — is no longer compelling to investors chasing concentrated, fast-moving bets. Without a clearer AI roadmap and stronger performance from AWS, Amazon risks slipping further behind its peers.
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