Amazon poised to deliver big in third quarter despite shadow over tech. Investors have been promised a 24% sales jump as analysts place their bets on the Jeff Bezos magic

Amazon’s distribution centre at Kingston Park in Peterborough. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Remember when Silicon Valley was a force for good? With their young bosses, origins in garages and revolutionary products, US tech companies were worshipped for bringing information, choice and innovation to the world.

As reporting season for the US tech sector revs up this week the sheen has come off as campaigners, politicians and the wider public have asked questions about the darker side of the digital revolution. Facebook, Amazon, Google’s parent, Alphabet, Microsoft and Apple are all reporting in the next couple of weeks.

Misuse of people’s data, aggressive tax avoidance, treatment of workers, enabling hate speech and the sheer size and power of the tech giants are all in the spotlight. The US government is conducting an antitrust review and Elizabeth Warren, the new frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination, has pledged to break up the digital monopolies.

Amazon, which reports third-quarter results on Thursday, is a case in point. Jeff Bezos’s company has faced repeated questions about working conditions at its warehouses in the US and the UK, where it is running an ad campaign featuring happy workers. Critics hold it partly responsible for the crisis on the high street.

Amazon’s sprawling business – from retail sales and computer gaming to advertising and entertainment streaming – is in Warren’s sights and in Britain the competition authorities are investigating its investment in Deliveroo. It could also be affected by proposals to make big tech companies pay more tax in countries where they make sales.

The Seattle-based company has told investors to expect third-quarter sales to jump by as much as 24% to a maximum of $70bn as it piles on revenue from cloud computing and its Prime service’s one-day delivery offer. Operating profit, though, is set to fall from $3.7bn to between $2.1bn and $3.1bn as Amazon spends on transport to expand its fast delivery offer.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/20/amazon-results-tech-jeff-bezos