Amazon's AWS Rate Hike Wins Wall Street Backing as Seller Tools Get an AI Boost

AWS GPU Capacity Block rates rise from October 7; Wells Fargo keeps Overweight and Goldman adds Amazon to its October favorites list.

Amazon is squeezing more revenue out of its cloud computing arm while simultaneously arming its third-party merchants with sharper automation — a twin strategy that has caught the attention of at least two major investment banks.

Shares in the Seattle-based company changed hands at EUR 224.80 early this week, up 0.6%, though they remain roughly 9.7% below their 52-week peak of EUR 249.00. The stock has advanced 13% since the start of the year.

Higher GPU Tariffs Signal Pricing Leverage at AWS

At the heart of Amazon's business momentum sits AWS. Newly published rate cards for so-called Capacity Blocks show that reserved GPU capacity will carry steeper fees from October 7. American customers will pay USD 16.146 per accelerator-hour for the B300 chip and USD 14.208 for the B200, while older H100 capacity is listed at USD 5.970 per hour.

The upward revision did not go unnoticed on Wall Street. Wells Fargo reaffirmed its "Overweight" rating on Thursday and kept its price target at USD 338, pointing to AWS's pricing power in the wake of the higher reservation fees for graphics processors. Goldman Sachs also added the company to its October favorites list the same day, citing sustained demand for AI compute, improving profitability in online retail and continued advertising growth.

Merchant Automation Takes Center Stage

While cloud infrastructure grabs headlines, Amazon is quietly deepening its grip on the marketplace that feeds it. At its Accelerate conference on September 30, the company unveiled new capabilities for its Seller Assistant and advertising controls, aimed at helping independent vendors run campaigns more efficiently and manage inventory without delays.

Central to the update is an automated advertising optimization tool. According to Amazon, campaigns using the feature recorded a first sale 40% faster in early evaluations. The company also rolled out an interface connecting Seller Central data with Anthropic's Claude systems and Amazon Quick in the US — building on a September 23 launch that brought the Claude plugin into a testing phase across American shops. A day later, on September 24, cross-channel tools followed, letting merchants link accounts on eBay, Shopify, TikTok and Walmart from a single hub.

The push is designed to lift productivity across the marketplace and bind partners more tightly to Amazon's ecosystem, at a time when digital sellers face mounting pressure to steer campaigns effectively and keep stock moving.

Logistics Spending and Legal Closure

Amazon is not limiting its investment to software. On September 21, the company said it would channel an additional USD 1.9 billion into its Delivery Service Partner program in 2027, with USD 70 million earmarked over five years for joint projects among partner firms. The package includes new safety technology for delivery fleets alongside financial grants. These independent couriers form the backbone of last-mile delivery, and smooth operations are seen as essential for reliably moving rising marketplace volumes to customers.

On the legal front, Amazon reached a settlement with the District of Columbia on Thursday, agreeing to pay USD 8.25 million to resolve a lawsuit over delivery restrictions. Of that sum, USD 7.25 million goes to roughly 69,000 customers as refunds, while USD 1 million is recorded as a penalty. Going forward, the company has committed to notifying customers about delivery limitations in advance.

Hardware Refresh and Holiday Events

Consumer hardware is also getting a facelift. Amazon introduced a new Fire TV Stick 4K alongside a redesigned remote on Wednesday, and announced an updated Kindle lineup for the Japanese market on Thursday spanning four revised models. The broader Kindle refresh includes devices such as the Paperwhite and Colorsoft, with US starting prices from USD 149.99.

Shoppers can expect the next major sales push on October 6 and 7, 2026, when the Prime Big Deal Days event returns with offers across more than 35 product categories.

For investors, the combination of cloud pricing power, merchant automation and steady device updates paints a picture of an ecosystem expanding from marketplace fees all the way to end-user hardware. Whether the new tools can sustain growth momentum is a question the coming quarterly reports will answer.