Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN shareholders approved the company’s director nominees, ratified Ernst & Young as independent auditor for fiscal 2026 and backed the company’s executive compensation plan at the company’s annual meeting, according to preliminary voting results announced during the meeting.
Susan Xiong, Amazon’s vice president, associate general counsel and corporate secretary, said each director nominee received a majority of votes cast. She also said none of the shareholder proposals received the required vote for approval.
Shareholder Proposals Rejected
Shareholders considered several proposals during the formal portion of the meeting, including requests for additional reporting on charitable partnerships, data centers and climate commitments, and the adoption of an independent board chair policy.
Stefan Padfield, a principal at the Free Enterprise Initiative, part of The Heritage Foundation, presented a proposal requesting a report on risks related to Amazon’s use of diagnostic tools created by corporate partners, particularly the Southern Poverty Law Center. Padfield criticized the board’s opposition statement and said The Heritage Foundation remained committed to engagement with Amazon.
Kelly Poole presented a proposal requesting additional reporting on how Amazon plans to meet climate commitments while expanding data centers to support artificial intelligence. Poole said Amazon’s data center growth could increase pressure on power grids and fossil fuel use, and cited a nearly 40% rise in emissions from electricity between 2022 and 2024.
Paul Chesser of the National Legal and Policy Center introduced a proposal seeking a report on the impact and cost of Amazon’s climate commitments. Chesser pointed to rising capital expenditures tied to AI and data center infrastructure and said shareholders should receive more information about the cost of The Climate Pledge.
Brandon Rees, speaking on behalf of the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund, urged the board to adopt a mandatory independent board chair policy. Rees said an independent chair would strengthen board oversight, citing Jeff Bezos’ ownership of other businesses that have contracts or potential business relationships with Amazon.
Joan Morris, a warehouse associate at Amazon’s ATL6 facility in East Point, Georgia, presented a non-binding floor proposal asking Amazon to establish an AI and automation advisory council made up primarily of hourly associates and frontline workers. Morris said workers need more transparency about how AI and robotics are being deployed. Amazon recommended shareholders vote against the proposal.
Olsavsky Highlights 2025 Financial Results
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said Amazon’s 2025 worldwide net sales rose 12% year over year to $716.9 billion. North America sales grew 10% to $426.3 billion, while international segment sales rose 10% excluding foreign exchange effects to $161.9 billion. AWS sales grew 20% to $129 billion.
Olsavsky said Amazon’s full-year worldwide operating income increased to $80 billion from $68.6 billion in 2024. He attributed the gain to accelerating revenue growth, lower per-unit cost to serve in the stores business and slower growth in fixed costs relative to revenue.
Amazon invested $128.3 billion in cash capital expenditures in 2025, Olsavsky said, primarily driven by AWS investments to support generative AI, core cloud services and technology infrastructure such as data centers, chips and servers. Operating cash flow rose $24 billion year over year to $140 billion, while free cash flow declined to $11 billion from $38 billion in 2024, largely due to higher capital spending.
In Amazon’s stores business, Olsavsky said the company delivered more than 13 billion units to Prime members the same day or next day globally in 2025. He also said same-day perishable grocery delivery became available in more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns, and that Everyday Essentials grew nearly twice as fast as other U.S. categories.
Jassy Points to AI and AWS Growth
Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said 2025 was a strong year for Amazon and that momentum continued into 2026. He said AWS grew 28% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, reaching a $150 billion revenue run rate, its fastest growth rate in 15 quarters.
Jassy said AWS’ AI revenue run rate exceeded $15 billion in the first quarter of 2026. He said customers are choosing AWS for generative AI because of its range of AI services, proximity to enterprise data and applications, core infrastructure offerings, and security and operating performance.
Jassy also highlighted Amazon’s custom chip business, saying it had a $20 billion annual revenue run rate through the first quarter of 2026 and was growing at triple-digit percentages year over year. He said Amazon had more than $225 billion in future revenue commitments for Trainium and that Trainium2 was “largely sold out,” while Trainium3 was also “largely sold out.”
Asked about a potential dividend, Jassy said Amazon continues to evaluate uses of cash but believes the best long-term use of available cash is investing in early-stage opportunities, including AI, AWS, retail infrastructure and Amazon Leo, the company’s low Earth orbit satellite constellation.
Retail, Safety and Prime Video Discussed
Jassy said Amazon’s retail business is seeing innovation beyond delivery speed, including Alexa for Shopping, image-based search through Lens, AI-generated product discussions and apparel sizing technology. He said Alexa for Shopping monthly users were up 115% year over year in March, with engagement up nearly 400%.
In response to a question about job rotation in fulfillment operations, Jassy said the practice is intended to reduce musculoskeletal injuries by limiting repetitive motions and ergonomic stress. He said Amazon’s global recordable incident rate was down 14% year over year and 43% over six years, while its global lost time incident rate was down 14% year over year and 70% over six years.
Jassy also said Amazon Leo had more than 300 satellites in space, with 20 additional launches planned this year and 30 next year. He said customers signed up for Leo include Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, AT&T, Vodafone, DIRECTV Latin America and others.
On Prime Video, Jassy said the business is growing, profitable and still early in its potential. He cited film and television content, live sports, and partnerships with third-party content providers as drivers of engagement.
About Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN
Amazon.com, Inc is a diversified technology and retail company best known for its e-commerce marketplace and broad portfolio of consumer and enterprise services. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company launched as an online bookseller and expanded into a global retail platform that sells products directly to consumers and provides a marketplace for third-party sellers. Over time Amazon has grown beyond retail into areas including cloud computing, digital media, devices and logistics.
Key businesses and offerings include Amazon's online marketplace and fulfillment services, the Amazon Prime membership program (which bundles expedited shipping with streaming and other benefits), Amazon Web Services (AWS) which supplies on-demand cloud computing and storage to businesses and public-sector customers, and a range of content and advertising services such as Prime Video and Amazon Advertising.
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