(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. reported quarterly profit that topped estimates on its cost cuts and surprisingly strong sales in the cloud-computing division, a sign the retailer’s business is weathering an uncertain economy. The shares gained about 8% in extended trading.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• Tesla Drops Model Y Starting Price Below the Average US Vehicle

• Fed’s Jerome Powell Tricked by Russian Pranksters Posing as Zelenskiy

• US Economic Growth Slows to 1.1% While Inflation Accelerates

• Germany in Talks to Limit Export of Chip Chemicals to China

• ASML, Europe’s Most Valuable Tech Firm, Is at the Heart of the US-China Chip War

First-quarter revenue increased 9.4% to $127.4 billion, the Seattle-based company said Thursday in a statement, above expectations for $124.7 billion. Operating income was $4.8 billion. Analysts, on average, projected $3 billion.

The world’s largest online retailer and cloud-computing provider has been working for more than a year to streamline its businesses to adjust to slowing sales growth in online shopping and its Amazon Web Services division. The company is cutting 27,000 jobs, the largest such cull in its history, with the latest round of layoffs announced Wednesday landing mostly on employees of AWS, its cloud unit.

Sales in the cloud unit rose 16% to $21.4 billion, more than Wall Street projected, although it was the fifth straight quarter that AWS year-over-year sales growth declined. Some analysts have speculated that a slowdown in corporate technology spending could push the cloud unit’s growth rates to single digits later this year.

Amazon’s results suggested the company’s efforts to reduce costs are starting to bear fruit. Operating expenses increased 8.7% in the quarter, the slowest pace in at least a decade. The company’s North America segment was profitable on an operating basis for the first time since late 2021.

The Seattle-based company projected sales of $127 billion to $133 billion in the current period ending in June and operating profit of $2 billion to $5.5 billion. Both were in line with estimates.

Amazon’s positive results follow similar good news this week from fellow big tech companies Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc. Microsoft, like Amazon, reported sustained sales for its public cloud business while Alphabet’s Google Cloud produced a profit for the first time. Meta’s digital advertising business rebounded, returning the company to sales growth after three straight quarters of declines. Amazon reported a 21% increase in its advertising sales to $9.51 billion.

The shares rose to a high of $123 in extended trading after closing at $109.82 in New York. The stock has gained 31% so far in 2023, part of a broad rebound among battered technology firms.

(Updates with cloud unit sales in the fourth paragraph.)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

• A Tax Loophole Makes EV Leasing a No-Brainer in the US

• At Charles Schwab, Being a Big Bank Has Become a Big Problem

• Musk Bets the House of Tesla on Low Prices and Razor-Thin Margins

• Good Luck Paying for Those $10,000 Obesity Drugs Everyone’s Talking About

• How Asia’s Hottest New App Was Sunk by Secret China Connections

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.