I think OP was alluding to the cash cow that AWS has become.

I kind of agree. But without AWS, Amazon could never have become the Amazon that we know today. AWS brings in the vast majority of the profits (sometimes >100%) for Amazon, despite being a modest proportion of revenue (~10%).

This is what generates the funding necessary for Amazon to do the crazy things that make Amazon amazing. Amazon - AWS = digital Walmart. Big and profitable, but not Amazon.

I think gp means that bezos would not be a mega billionaire without aws. He would be like any other nameless CEO in the public's knowledge.

without AWS would Amazon have been able to dominate?

> Most people have no idea what AWS is

Actually no. Most people I know even not in Tech, know Amazon has this 'cloud' business. Whether they know it is called AWS or not, is different.

AWS has been buying a zillion ads in NFL games, not entirely sure why but it's hard to ignore.

While regular consumers may not know what AWS is, Amazon's core business was able to sustain losses for 10+ years only because of profits coming from there.

Interestingly, if you go international, Amazon is either not present at all or a niche player as an online store in many countries. But in terms of cloud infrastructure they've become the universal global default / premium service. It is fascinating to me that they have beaten players like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle etc. to this status. I actually have to mount a business case in my organisation NOT to use AWS even though all the desktops and half the servers are pure Microsoft stack.

I mostly agree but I also think AWS is probably more in the public consciousness than most people would think (in the US anyway). They have TV advertisement slots with NFL for crying out loud. That said, most people probably don't actually know what it is, just that they've heard of it.

As "cloud" and "AI" become more and more accepted generic terms for technology to the public and I think AWS may even over take the PR position.