Amazon surges 14%, Apple falls 9% as investors pick post-earnings AI winners

Amazon shares surged 14% on Friday while Apple dropped 9% as investors reacted starkly differently to their June quarter earnings reports.

Both companies reported on Thursday after the bell.

Apple's earnings, revenue and iPhone sales were all above market expectations; however, the company issued weak guidance for the current quarter, citing "supply constraints." Apple said revenue growth in the current quarter will be between 9% and 11%, missing analysts' expectations for 12% growth, according to LSEG.

The company is grappling with a huge shortage of memory, a key component in its devices, as well as competition for chip manufacturing capacity.

This has led Apple to raise prices on the Mac and iPad, and analysts expect an iPhone price rise to come this year.

Amazon, meanwhile, said revenue at its cloud computing business jumped 37% year-on-year in the second quarter, marking the strongest expansion since 2021. Its Amazon Web Services business is closely watched by the market, as this is where the company books most of its sales related to AI. Investors monitor this unit as an indication of the demand Amazon is seeing for its AI products.

Amazon shares surged even as the company forecast its capital expenditures to hit $220 billion this year, up from a prior forecast of $200 billion, as it continues to invest in AI infrastructure.

Investors have been scrutinizing spending from Big Tech on AI as concerns grow that these companies are spending ahead of demand. But Amazon's own cloud growth appeared to justify the company's capex.

AWS's strong growth "is a clear indicator that its infrastructure investments are meeting market demand rather than outpacing it," Tracy Woo, principal analyst at Forrester, said in a note on Thursday.

Amazon's stock has been a laggard in 2026 and is up around 4% year-to-date. Apple meanwhile, has risen 23% across the same period. The iPhone maker is partly seen as an alternative trade to the tech players who have been spending heavily, as Apple has not gone on a huge capex expansion journey.

Investors appear to be picking their AI winners during this earnings season, with the stock price moves of tech giants diverging.

On Thursday, Meta sank 8% while Microsoft rallied 15% as investors took a different view on both companies' AI strategies.

— CNBC's Kif Leswing contributed to this report.

Apple and Amazon shares this year.