Amazon CEO Andy Jassy just shared a rare behind-the-scenes look at AWS's turbulent early days, revealing that even inside Amazon, people thought the cloud venture was "nutty." Speaking to employees this week, Jassy opened up about the doubt, uncertainty, and internal resistance that nearly derailed what would become the company's most profitable division, generating over $90 billion annually.
The confession came during an all-hands meeting where Amazon CEO Andy Jassy dropped his usual executive polish and got brutally honest about AWS's rocky beginnings. "While we were excited about what we were building, I would not say that we were filled with unbridled confidence," Jassy told employees. "There was a lot of uncertainty as we were building. People inside the company thought it was nutty."
The admission offers a fascinating glimpse into what's now become Amazon's cash cow. AWS generated $90.8 billion in revenue last year, representing roughly 70% of the company's operating income. But back in 2006, when Jassy was leading the project, cloud computing was an unproven concept that seemed to distract from Amazon's core e-commerce business.
Jassy's turning point came when his team stopped fixating on outcomes they couldn't predict. "We can't control whether people will use this new form of computing, we can't control how fast it'll grow, we can't control if it's a successful business," he explained. Instead, they zeroed in on what they could influence: "We can control what we define, and we can control what we build, and we can control who we hire."
This mindset shift transformed AWS from an internal experiment into a systematic business-building machine. The team focused on controllable variables like pricing models, customer targeting, and development speed. "Once we started focusing on controlling what we could control, we got to a much better spot," Jassy said.
The strategy worked. AWS launched with simple storage and computing services in 2006, but its focus on developer-friendly tools and aggressive pricing helped it capture early enterprise adoption. By 2015, AWS was generating $7.9 billion annually. Today, it dominates cloud infrastructure with a 32% market share, ahead of Microsoft Azure's 23% and Google Cloud's 11%.
Jassy's reflection on persistence comes at a critical moment for Amazon. The company is pouring billions into AI infrastructure, betting that generative AI will drive the next wave of cloud growth. AWS recently announced new AI chips and expanded partnerships with companies like , investments that mirror the uncertain early days of cloud computing.
