The division has over 10k employees and reportedly over $5 billion in fixed costs. Where is the return on investing capital (ROIC) for $AMZN here?

I get they have a lot of households with Alexa-activated devices (by selling gadgets at or below cost, I may add) but I fail to see where they are actually generating cash flow vs. how much they are spending on what seems like a science project.

Here's another question that frames my thinking: If Alexa was shut down overnight, what would Amazon lose? Would people spend significantly less through its retail channels vs. the $5 billion or more in cost savings it would achieve?

Where am I wrong here?

We discussed this and more on our recent Investing Power Hour episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpb3K9r7EKQ