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The stock market continues to perform well this year despite fears of a coming recession. While this could be the early innings of a new bull market, especially following last year's downturn, nobody can tell for sure. However, a sustained bull run will come eventually. That is one thing we can bet the farm on. And there are plenty of quality stocks to consider buying before that happens. One that looks particularly attractive is Amazon (AMZN -1.27%). Let's consider why the tech juggernaut remains such an excellent option for investors.

Amazon faced a barrage of headwinds last year, culminating in the first annual net loss it's had since 2014. Consumer activity declined, leading to lower sales for its e-commerce business than it would have typically generated. Businesses strapped for capital reduced investment in cloud computing, and expenses and costs, partly related to inflation, were up.

That's a bad combination for any company. But Amazon is turning over a new leaf this year. It has gone through several cost-cutting initiatives, including layoffs, to decrease costs. In the first quarter, the company's revenue increased by 9% year over year to $127.4 billion. Amazon's net loss of $3.8 billion in Q1 2022 swung to a net income of $3.2 billion this time around.

Things should continue to improve for Amazon, which is why its shares are up by 50% already this year. But the company's long-term prospects are even more appealing.

Amazon's biggest strength isn't its leadership in several fast-growing industries ripe for growth, its size, or the amount of cash it generates. Of course, all those things are important, but they are all the result of something more fundamental. Amazon has created a culture that enables it to identify exciting growth opportunities and expertly pounce on them.

That's what it did with e-commerce in its early days and with cloud computing. Now, Amazon is seeking to do the same with the newest technological revolution: artificial intelligence (AI). The company recently announced Amazon Bedrock through its cloud service, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Bedrock will give developers the tools to build generative AI models, applications that take in a set of queries and generate text, images, videos, etc. ChatGPT is an example.

To help speed up the development of new generative AI applications, Amazon will provide foundation models, the backbones behind applications like ChatGPT. foundation models are trained to identify patterns on large datasets (pictures, text, etc.) and fine-tuned to perform various tasks. Building foundation models are expensive and time-consuming.

Developers will be able to save time and money in developing generative AI applications thanks to Bedrock. AI is, of course, on the rise. While estimates vary, they all promise an exciting future for the industry. Grand View Research predicts that the generative AI market will reach $109.7 billion by 2030, clocking in at an impressive compound annual growth rate of 35.6% through then.

Amazon could be a winner here. We can also expect the company to continue making headway elsewhere, from its attempt to make waves in healthcare to its dominance in e-commerce and the broader cloud computing industry, both of which are still growing rapidly.That's not to mention Amazon's presence in music and video streaming.

Further, Amazon's competitive advantage from multiple sources will help it stay ahead of its peers. The company benefits from a powerful brand name, one of the most valuable in the world.Its e-commerce platform is a prime example of the flywheel effect, where its value increases with usage (more merchants attract more customers and vice-versa).

AWS also benefits from high switching costs. Amazon should succeed in delivering plenty more years of market-beating performance, given all that it has going for it.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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A Bull Market Is Coming: 1 Unstoppable Growth Stock to Buy and Hold - The Motley Fool