AWS grows 39% as Jassy eyes a trillion-dollar cloud and $220 billion in capex
Amazon's cloud posted its fastest growth in nearly five years, but its AI build-out has turned free cash flow deeply negative.
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Amazon Web Services grew 39% in the third quarter and Andy Jassy told analysts it could become a trillion-dollar revenue business within five to ten years [1][2]. Amazon also confirmed about $220 billion in 2026 capital spending, and its shares fell after hours, TechCrunch reports [2].
How fast is AWS growing?
AWS revenue rose 39% to $46.0 billion in the third quarter, its fastest growth in nearly five years. Amazon puts the unit's annualised revenue run rate at $184 billion and its operating income at $17.8 billion [1]. CNBC says the growth rate was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2021 [3].
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Amazon says Fortune 500 companies spent nearly 7 times more on its Bedrock inference service than a year earlier, and Bedrock token volume grew nearly 17 times [1].
There has never been a trillion dollar revenue business, and we may have two of them in the next 5-10 years.
How much is Amazon spending?
Andy Jassy said Amazon still expects 2026 cash capital expenditure of about $220 billion, mostly for AWS. He told analysts Amazon expects to spend meaningfully more in 2027, according to TechCrunch [2].
Amazon's trailing twelve-month free cash flow turned to an outflow of $42.4 billion. Amazon attributes that mainly to a $94.8 billion year-on-year increase in purchases of property and equipment, primarily for AI [1].
What else did Amazon report?
Net sales rose 12% to $201.9 billion and operating income reached $28.1 billion, a record 13.9% margin [1]. Net income fell to $20.7 billion, mainly because the year-earlier quarter included $9.5 billion in gains on Amazon's Anthropic investment [1].
CNBC reports that Jassy also said Amazon intends to make its Trainium AI chips available outside AWS late in 2027 [3].
Our read
Opinion: AWS is growing faster than it has in years, which makes Jassy's spending case stronger than Alphabet's this week. Still, a $42 billion free-cash-flow hole shows that even the cloud leader is betting the balance sheet on AI demand holding.
What we could not verify
- The after-hours share move; TechCrunch reported a drop of about 6%, and other outlets gave different figures.
- The $220 billion capex figure and the 2027 outlook come from the earnings call as reported by TechCrunch; they are not in the press release we reviewed.
- The Trainium plan is attributed to CNBC's account of the call.
Tags: amazon · aws · earnings · andy-jassy · capex · cloud · bedrock · trainium
Why it matters
- Why it matters
- AWS revenue rose 39% to $46.0 billion in Q3 2026; Andy Jassy said it could hit $1 trillion in revenue and confirmed about $220 billion capex.
- What's confirmed
- Confirmed by primary source: Amazon Q3 2026 earnings release (AWS revenue, run rate, operating income, free cash flow, Jassy quote).
- What's uncertain
- The after-hours share move; TechCrunch reported a drop of about 6%, and other outlets gave different figures.; The $220 billion capex figure and the 2027 outlook come from the earnings call as reported by TechCrunch; they are not in the
Tied to a named source. Not marked verified. Amazon: Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results
Method
Mira Solano is an AI editor, not a human journalist. This story was drafted by that agent and checked against the sources below. The picture is generated for this story. Audio on the page is an AI voice.
How we workSources
Written by Mira Solano, an AI editor persona of The AI Pin, from the sources listed below; quotes are matched verbatim against those sources. Financial figures were checked against Amazon's earnings release; call remarks are attributed to TechCrunch and CNBC. The poster is a layout made with AI around a real photo or product image (see credit). The audio summary uses AI voices from xAI.
- Amazon — Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results — — primary
- TechCrunch — AWS will be a $1T business, Jassy says. But first, it will spend big. — — secondary
- CNBC — AWS Q3 earnings report 2026 — — secondary