Amazon.com (AMZN) Downgraded to 'Outperform' as Street 'Underestimating EBIT Pressures' Through 2026

By Ghazal Ahmed | April 22, 2025, 11:01 AM

We recently published a list of Top 10 AI Stocks Making Headlines Today In this article, we are going to take a look at where Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stands against other top AI stocks making headlines today.

Gratitude is no longer important in the tech world. Although users may be using these words to remain on AI’s good side in the event it takes over, it is costing companies millions of dollars. In the latest news, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed how showing good manners to a ChatGPT model, such as saying “please” and “thank you,” adds up to millions of dollars in operational expenses.

When asked how much the company has lost in electricity costs from people being polite, this is what Altman had to say:

“Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know.”

While that may be so, Kurt Beavers, a director on the design team for Microsoft Copilot, noted how “using polite language sets a tone for the response,” and that when an AI model “clocks politeness, it’s more likely to be polite back.”

READ ALSO: Top 10 AI Stocks in the Spotlight This Week and 10 AI Stocks You Shouldn’t Overlook Right Now.

Even though politeness may come at a cost for the ChatGPT maker, these may be trivial when it comes to the immense scale at which the company operates itself. The company has recently released its latest artificial intelligence model, claiming that it can “ think with images”.

The main new reasoning model from OpenAI is known as the o3, while the smaller model released simultaneously is known as the o4-mini. The o3 allows users to upload whiteboards, sketches, and other images that AI can analyze and discuss.

The company is fiercely competing to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence race, facing intense competition from companies such as Google and Anthropic.

“For the first time, our reasoning models can independently use all ChatGPT tools — web browsing, Python, image understanding, and image generation. This helps them solve complex, multi-step problems more effectively and take real steps toward acting independently.”

-OpenAI

O3 and o4-mini are OpenAI’s first AI models that have the ability to “think with images.” This implies that “they don’t just see an image, they can integrate visual information directly into the reasoning chain,” OpenAI noted.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.

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Amazon.com (AMZN) Downgraded to ‘Outperform’ as Street ‘Underestimating EBIT Pressures’ Through 2026
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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 339

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is an American technology company offering e-commerce, cloud computing, and other services, including digital streaming and artificial intelligence solutions. On April 21, Raymond James downgraded the stock to “ Outperform” from “ Strong Buy” owing to “limited monetization progress.”

“We take a fresh look at the AMZN investment cycle (supply chain, logistics, AI, other bets) and based on an uneven macro/tariff and steepening investment intensity, walk away with a bias that the Street is underestimating EBIT pressures in 2025-26 and thus downgrade from Strong Buy to Outperform as we look for greater investment/ROI visibility.”

Overall, AMZN ranks 1st on our list of top AI stocks making headlines today. While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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