Amazon Tops $200 Billion in Quarterly Revenue, Boosts AI Spending

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an "AI-based customized news recommendation and summary service" developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. Amazon's Cloud Profit Surges 64%, Capital Expenditure Expanded to $220 Billion

- Key Summary: Amazon recorded revenue of $200.61 billion (about 285 trillion won) in the second quarter of this year, surpassing $200 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time. AWS's quarterly revenue rose 37% year-on-year to $42.2 billion, and operating profit surged 64% to $16.621 billion. Accordingly, Amazon plans to expand this year's capital expenditure to $220 billion by increasing investment in infrastructure construction, including memory chips. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that in a few years, revenue growth will outpace capital expenditure growth.

2. Won Plunges to 1,410 Range on Korea-US-Japan Coordination Talk, FX Trading Hits Record High

- Key Summary: The won-dollar exchange rate fell sharply to the 1,410 range during intraday trading on the 31st, as it was reported that the monetary authorities of Korea, Japan, and the US intervened in the foreign exchange market simultaneously. Earlier, in the New York foreign exchange market, the possibility of the Japanese foreign exchange authorities intervening to buy yen was raised, causing the yen-dollar exchange rate to plunge, and this effect was reflected in the won as well. Moon Ji-sung, Director-General for International Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, said that Korea, the US, and Japan are coordinating frequently through hotlines and other channels. Meanwhile, as volatility in the foreign exchange market grew, the average daily foreign exchange trading volume of foreign exchange banks in the second quarter rose 18.3% from the previous quarter to $121.44 billion, surpassing $120 billion for the first time.

3. Retail Trading Volume Falls 83% on First Day of Stronger Leverage Deposit Requirement

- Key Summary: On the first day the basic deposit requirement for single-stock leveraged product investment was raised to 30 million won in cash, retail investor trading volume in 16 leveraged ETFs tracking Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) fell 83.1% from the previous trading day to 929.9 billion won. According to the office of Rep. Yoo Dong-soo of the Democratic Party of Korea, 94.1% of single-stock leverage investor accounts at six major domestic securities firms held less than 30 million won in cash. However, side effects were also confirmed, with the divergence rate of Samsung Electronics Futures Single-Stock Inverse 2X widening to -21.55% due to rebalancing dispersion. A financial investment industry official said that the policy's effects should be reviewed over a bit more time.

4. Betting on Japan's Chip Push, ETF Nears 90% One-Year Return

- Key Summary: As the Japanese government announced it would foster AI and semiconductors as future growth engines, domestically listed Japanese semiconductor exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are drawing attention. ACE Japan Semiconductor recorded a six-month return of 7.33% and a one-year return of 88.94%, the highest performance among 18 domestically listed Japan-focused investment ETFs. The Japanese government selected 17 growth strategy industries into which it will invest at least 370 trillion yen (about 3,500 trillion won) by 2040, with AI and semiconductors included as core industries. Nam Yong-soo, head of the ETF division at Korea Investment Management, said that Japan has secured strong competitiveness in the core technologies and materials needed for advanced processes, so long-term growth potential is expected.