Amazon CEO Says AWS Has Sold Out 2026 Capacity Ahead of Earnings

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AWS has sold out its 2026 capacity and is largely sold out for 2027, highlighting cloud demand as Amazon prepares to report third-quarter results next week.

Jassy made the comments in an interview released Oct. 23. He characterized AWS capacity for 2026 as sold out and for 2027 as largely sold out, while saying “a good chunk” of 2028 capacity had also been sold. He added that AWS keeps some capacity available for on-demand use.

AWS sales rose 37% year over year to $42.2 billion in the second quarter, and the cloud unit recorded $16.6 billion in operating income. Amazon did not provide a separate third-quarter revenue forecast for AWS.

Jassy said in July that Amazon expected about $220 billion in cash capital expenditures in 2026, up from an earlier estimate of about $200 billion, citing higher memory costs. In the Oct. 23 interview, he said, “Even spending $220 billion this year, we're leaving a meaningful amount of demand on the table.”

Amazon’s free cash flow was a $7.6 billion outflow for the 12 months ended June 30. The company attributed the outflow primarily to increased purchases of property and equipment related to AI investment.

Amazon’s second-quarter net sales rose 20% year over year to $200.6 billion. For the third quarter, its sales guidance is $197 billion to $202 billion, and its operating-income forecast is $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion. The company said its sales growth would be nearly 400 basis points higher excluding the shift in Prime Day timing in both years, and its guidance assumes an approximately 80-basis-point foreign-exchange headwind.

Analysts expect earnings of $1.96 per share and about $202.2 billion in sales, slightly above the guidance ceiling. Amazon’s second-quarter result was $5.75 per diluted share, including $53.4 billion in non-operating pretax other income, primarily from its investments in Anthropic. That result is not a like-for-like operating comparison with the third-quarter estimate. Amazon’s results call is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29, at 5 p.m. ET (9 p.m. UTC).