In plain words
Amazon sold $201.9 billion of goods and services in the three months to September, 12% more than a year earlier. Its operating profit jumped 61% to $28.1 billion, a 13.9% margin. AWS, its cloud business, grew 39% and earned $17.8 billion of that profit, almost two dollars in every three. To keep up with demand for AI, Amazon spent $75.9 billion in cash on data centres and equipment in the quarter, more than twice as much as a year ago. That spending is far bigger than the cash the business brought in, so over the past twelve months Amazon paid out $42.4 billion more than it generated, and it borrowed to cover the gap.
The finding
Amazon has become a cloud company with a store attached, and it is financing the cloud's AI build-out with debt. AWS growing 39% at a $46 billion quarterly scale, at a 38.7% margin, is the story. Free cash flow swinging from a $14.8 billion inflow to a $42.4 billion outflow over twelve months is the cost. Long-term debt has risen from $65.6 billion to $173.1 billion since December. Management is not slowing down: it reaffirmed about $220 billion of cash capex for 2026, and in the release CEO Andy Jassy projects AWS revenue growth of over 40% in both 2027 and 2028. The bet is getting bigger, and the balance sheet is carrying it.
Market reaction: AMZN closed at $240.35 on Oct 30, 2026, down 1.41% from its $243.79 close on Oct 29, the day of the report (CNBC, close Oct 30).
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