Amazon doubled its net profit to $14.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, surprising markets unsettled by rising labor prices and supply and delivery difficulties.

The online commerce giant achieved a turnover of US$137.4 billion according to predictions, according to its earnings report released on Thursday, February 3. His net profit was largely helped by a return on investment from his shares in automaker Rivian, which went public in November.

Shares of Amazon rose 14% in electronic trading at the close of the New York Stock Exchange, attracting investors eager for good news after shares in Facebook’s parent company Meta tumbled.

Amazon has emerged as a big winner from the era of the coronavirus pandemic, but it is particularly exposed to supply chain problems, job turnover and inflation.

“Despite these short-term challenges, we continue to feel optimistic and excited about the business as we emerge from the pandemic,” CEO Andy Jassy said in the earnings report.

In that results report, the company highlighted having achieved its “best sales weekend” in the period of balances that goes from the so-called ‘Black Friday’ to ‘Cyber Monday’ (the Friday and Monday after the US holiday Thanksgiving), two big business dates.

The last three months of the year were also favorable for AWS, its cloud service (remote computing), especially thanks to the contracts signed with Nasdaq and Meta for its networks and messaging and Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp networks. AWS generated US$17.78 billion in revenue in the period, 40% more than the previous year. Analysts were dovish on earnings, including the $11.8 billion return on investment in Rivian.”

Amazon managed to outperform despite milder growth trends for e-commerce this holiday quarter, which also hurt growth in the high-margin advertising business,” said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst at Insider Intelligence.

In the fourth quarter, the company’s operating profit came in at $3.5 billion, half what it was a year ago. In the coming months, there could be news of attempts by Amazon workers to organize unions at headquarters in New York and Alabama, an unprecedented development for the company.

In addition, the Amazon Prime membership in the United States will increase from US$12.99 to US$14.99 per month, or an annuity from US$119 but US$139, the first increase since 2018.