Amazon went from two decades of razor-thin margins and endless reinvestment to becoming one of the most profitable companies on the planet. Bezos’ playbook was simple: sacrifice short-term returns to build scale, dominate industries, and let competitors’ margins become his opportunity.
Instead of raising billions through equity like Google or Meta, Amazon stayed lean, relying on debt and reinvested profits. The turning point came with AWS, the secret engine that quietly made more profit than Amazon’s entire retail business combined.
That cushion let Bezos fund aggressive expansion into everything from logistics to entertainment, while delaying profits until the time was right. When Andy Jassy, the architect of AWS, took over as CEO, he flipped the switch. Amazon cut costs, raised prices, leaned on its absurdly profitable cloud and ad divisions, and finally turned the knob from growth to profit.
In just four years, the company swung from losing billions to making $85 billion annually. Bezos wasn’t chasing quarterly numbers—he was building long-term domination, and now we’re living in the world it created.