Amazon: A Modest Proposal for Future Millionaires

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It began, as these things often do, with a fellow named Bezos. Not a wizard, mind you, though some in the Guild of Alchemists and Venture Capitalists1 swore he possessed a similar knack for turning base metals – or, in this case, books – into something resembling gold. He had a simple philosophy: give the customer exactly what they want, before they even know they want it. It’s a dangerous game, playing with desire, but it’s made Amazon rather successful.

A mere forty-one gold dragons2 invested at the Initial Public Offering – a quaint ritual involving much shouting and the waving of parchment – would now purchase a small kingdom. Or, failing that, a very comfortable townhouse. The question isn’t whether Amazon has made millionaires; it’s whether it continues to be a reliable path to such a state. A path, let’s be honest, increasingly crowded with hopefuls and slightly desperate hedge fund managers.

The Cloud and the Cogitations

Amazon began as a purveyor of… well, everything. A digital bazaar, if you will. It still does that, of course, supported by a logistical network that makes the ant colonies of the Southern Desert look positively disorganized. It’s the second largest retailer on the planet, trailing only Walmart, which, let’s be charitable, has had a head start.

But the real magic, the truly baffling sorcery, resides in Amazon Web Services, or AWS. It started as an internal project – a way to stop coders from losing crucial data to rogue coffee spills and gremlins3 – and blossomed into a lucrative business. AWS provides the very foundations upon which much of the digital world now rests. It’s growing at a respectable clip, with profit margins that would make a dragon blush, and a customer base glued to it by the high cost of switching to, shall we say, a less… established provider. AWS currently commands about a third of the market, a dominance that is, shall we say, convenient for Amazon.

And then there’s the current obsession: Artificial Intelligence. The latest shiny bauble, promising to solve all our problems while simultaneously creating a whole new set. Companies are falling over themselves to harness its power, and AWS, being the dominant cloud platform, is naturally benefiting. “Start-ups, enterprises, and governments want to move their production workloads to the place that has the broadest and deepest array of capabilities,” declared the current CEO, a fellow named Jassy. Which, translated from corporate-speak, means “we have all the toys, and everyone wants to play with them.”

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Can Amazon Reach the Lunar Cheese?

Investing in Amazon at the IPO was a gamble. A truly reckless act of faith, bordering on lunacy. But those bold enough to hold on for the long haul have been handsomely rewarded. It’s the sort of story that inspires cautionary tales and envious sighs in equal measure.

Buying Amazon stock now is… different. The risk profile has shifted dramatically. It’s no longer a high-risk venture; it’s a fairly predictable, well-established enterprise. Which, from a value investor’s perspective, is… interesting. It means the potential for exponential growth has diminished. Don’t expect to turn a small investment into a kingdom overnight.

Let’s be frank: a modest fortune, yes. But a truly life-altering, generational wealth-creating event? Increasingly unlikely. Amazon simply won’t grow at the same rate it did in the past. However, at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 28.6, it’s not entirely unreasonable to consider adding shares to a diversified portfolio. It’s not a screaming bargain, mind you, but it’s a solid, well-managed company with a strong market position. A perfectly acceptable, if somewhat unspectacular, addition to a sensible portfolio.

The real question isn’t whether Amazon can make you a millionaire. It’s whether you have the patience, the discipline, and, frankly, the good sense to invest in something that doesn’t promise overnight riches. And that, my friends, is a far more difficult proposition.

1 A notoriously fickle group, prone to chasing the latest trends and occasionally summoning minor deities to influence market prices.
2 The currency of sensible investment. Also quite useful for buying tea.
3 The natural enemies of all data, and surprisingly adept at shorting stocks.

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2026-01-27 06:22