[mythz]

AWS accounts for their largest profits, growth and margins, their financials would be even worse if you compared them against retail stocks which are high capital intensive and low margin businesses, there's no way AMZN is valued as a retailer which would make their valuation even more insane.

[User23]

Amazon is valued based on the implicit assumption that Bezos is a Buffet tier investing genius. So far, that assumption has held. The main difference is that Bezos invents new businesses in addition to buying them. Nobody is arguing that retail isn't a big part of their business, but it was only ever meant to be the bootstrap. It's incredibly rare to see such executive and entrepreneurial skill combined in the same individual.

[eloff]

Yes, this is my take on it as well. They're betting he can keep growing at 20% for many years to come, which would be almost unprecedented for a company of that size and age.