Amazon just dropped $44.2 billion in a single quarter on capital expenditures-a 77% surge from $25 billion a year ago. The company’s AI spending spree is accelerating, not slowing down.
Trailing twelve-month capex now sits at $147.3 billion, up 67% from $88 billion. Operating cash flow rose 30% to $148.5 billion, but free cash flow cratered to just $1.2 billion. Nearly every dollar coming in is going right back out.
AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing arm, met revenue expectations and remains the engine expected to justify this spending. Analysts cite AWS’s performance and forward guidance as key reasons the market isn’t punishing Amazon for burning through its cash.
The investment thesis: Amazon is betting AI infrastructure will drive its next decade of growth, primarily through AWS. But if enterprise demand slows or AI monetization stalls, the math gets uncomfortable fast.