Total cash capital expenditure in Q3 rose to $77.3 billion from $35.1 billion a year earlier, as Amazon maintains guidance for about $220 billion in cash capex for the year and issued $48.1 billion in long-term debt in the quarter, with borrowing capacity now up to $80 billion tied to AI hardware.

Retail performance was mixed, with online store sales up 2% to $68.5 billion, advertising revenue up 11% to $19.6 billion, and Prime Day shifting into the second quarter in many regions, partially dampening overall growth; Prime Video is generating tens of billions in revenue and is profitable.

For the holiday quarter, Amazon guided revenue of $240–$247 billion and operating income of $28.5–$33.5 billion, while competition with Google Cloud and Alphabet was highlighted, though Alphabet shares faced a notable market day.

AWS delivered its strongest growth in nearly five years, with revenue up 39% to $46 billion and operating income rising to $17.8 billion, positioning AWS with an annual revenue run rate of about $184 billion and a backlog of $578 billion.

CEO Andy Jassy suggested there could be two trillion-dollar revenue businesses for Amazon within 5–10 years and asserted that the company can fund its AI-driven investment plan.

Amazon’s free cash flow turned negative, at about $42.4 billion over the trailing 12 months ending September, largely due to AI spending, reversing a positive $14.8 billion from the prior year.

Jassy indicated rapid AI infrastructure expansion, noting AWS is installing an AI accelerator roughly every 14 seconds and expects more than 40% revenue growth in 2027 and 2028; plans to sell Trainium AI chips outside AWS by late 2027 after TorchNeuron launch to run PyTorch on Trainium.

Q3 revenue rose 12% to $201.9 billion and operating income to $28.1 billion, achieving a record operating margin of 13.9%, though shares fell up to 7% in after-hours trading as results lagged some expectations.