AI News Pushed Tech Stocks Higher Late Thursday

on Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud platform. Taken together, it was a reminder that “AI trade” optimism is increasingly tied to a basic question: are companies actually using more cloud computing, or just talking about it?

For markets: Snowflake’s $6 billion AWS deal reframed margins and demand.

A multi-year cloud-commit deal usually comes with volume discounts and reserved capacity, meaning Snowflake can lock in cheaper compute and storage per unit. Because those cloud bills flow through cost of revenue, lower unit costs can lift gross margin and make profitability improve faster as sales scale. It also matters for Amazon: committed spend tends to make AWS revenue feel less lumpy, giving investors a clearer read on whether AI-driven workloads are becoming durable. And since many usage-based software firms live and die by consumption, one large contract can change how the market thinks about the wider group’s growth quality.