Apple exceeded expectations this week with strong quarterly figures thanks to iPhone sales and recovery in China, while Amazon disappointed investors with disappointing growth in its AWS cloud division, despite otherwise solid results.
Apple posted its strongest revenue growth in more than three years in the third quarter of 2025. Revenue rose 9.6 percent to $94 billion, exceeding analysts’ average forecast of $89.3 billion. The recovery was largely driven by strong iPhone sales and a notable upturn in the Chinese market.
In that country, where local brands have been giving Apple a hard time in recent years, the company managed to regain market share. iPhone revenue came in at $44.6 billion, helped by the launch of the new entry-level 16th model. The services division also performed better than expected. In China, Apple posted revenue of $15.4 billion, up 4.4 percent year-on-year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that accelerated growth was seen in many key markets, including emerging economies. Import tariffs in the US also had an unexpected effect. Although they drove up costs, they encouraged consumers to make purchases sooner for fear of price increases. However, this impulse proved to be temporary and accounted for only a limited part of the revenue growth.
Apple also expects a solid performance in the fourth quarter, with predicted revenue growth in the mid to high single digits. Earnings per share came in at $1.57, well above the expected $1.43.
Nevertheless, investors also expressed concerns about Apple’s lag in AI. Cook made it clear that he intends to invest heavily in this technology, including through acquisitions.
Investors dissatisfied with Amazon
While Apple surprised the market with better-than-expected figures, Amazon disappointed with the performance of its cloud division AWS. Although Amazon’s total quarterly revenue rose 13 percent to $167.7 billion and profits increased by more than a third to $18.2 billion, AWS’s growth stalled at 17.5 percent. That is only just enough to meet expectations, especially compared to competitors such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, which grew by 39 and nearly 32 percent, respectively.
Investors were also concerned about AWS’s sharp decline in profit margin. Despite record e-commerce revenues and major investments in AI capacity, Amazon’s share price fell by more than six percent in after-hours trading.