Where Do the Profits Really Come From? Amazon, Apple, Tesla

How does Amazon make money? Amazon started as an online bookseller in 1995. Today its store brings in the crowd, but AWS, its cloud business, made 57% of Amazon's operating profit in 2025 on 18% of its sales, and Amazon advertising brought in $68.6 billion. So what does Amazon really sell? We follow Amazon from bookseller to the Everything Store, through Prime, Prime Video and the $25 billion Alexa loss, to the day in 2015 it revealed AWS. Then the same pattern at Apple (Google's $20 billion search payment), Tesla (regulatory credits), Delta (the American Express deal), McDonald's (rent) and Costco (the $1.50 hot dog). Analysis and commentary, not financial advice. Chapters: 0:00 Intro: Amazon isn't a store 1:20 Amazon history: bookseller to Everything Store 2:31 Prime, Prime Video and the Alexa loss 4:58 How AWS makes most of Amazon's profit 7:54 Amazon advertising and seller fees 10:03 Apple's Google deal, Tesla credits, Delta and Amex 13:09 McDonald's real estate and the Costco hot dog 14:35 What these companies really sell Sources: Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Delta, McDonald's and Costco company filings and results; TechCrunch; Wall Street Journal; Bloomberg; Business Insider; AppleInsider; 9to5Mac; The Drive; EVXL; Sidley Austin; Financial Times via Sherwood News; Snopes; The National; Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. #Amazon #AWS #BusinessModel #Apple #Tesla #AmazonPrime #Costco #McDonalds #BusinessStrategy #ProfitAndLore