Amazon has shrugged off competition from fast-growing Chinese rivals to post its strongest-ever start to the year. The tech giant posted profits of $10.4bn (£8.3bn) in the first three months of 2024, up from $3.2bn during the same period last year. This came despite the growing threat from China’s online retail giants such as Shein and Temu. The latest jump in profits stemmed from revenues surging 13pc to $143.3bn in the first quarter, driven by strong retail sales in North America and rapid growth across its digital infrastructure division, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon hailed surging demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) services, which fall under its AWS arm. Bosses now expect the AWS division to post more than $100bn in turnover across this year as a whole. Shares briefly jumped more than 6pc following the trading update before dropping back to around 2pc. The results, posted on Tuesday night, come as Amazon executives increasingly focus their attention on competition from Chinese shopping sites. Temu, which is owned by China’s PDD, has rapidly grown to tens of millions of monthly shoppers, who have been drawn in by its bargain prices and the tagline “shop like a billionaire”. The Wall Street...