Amazon Forecasts $220 Billion in Capital Spending for 2026

Amazon expects about $220 billion in cash capital expenditures in 2026 to expand technology infrastructure and fulfillment capacity, as Amazon Web Services (AWS) sales rose 39% year over year in the third quarter.

The forecast covers Amazon’s total planned cash capital expenditures, not an AI-only budget. The plan includes technology infrastructure, much of it supporting AWS, as well as fulfillment capacity. Cash capital expenditures were $75.9 billion in the third quarter, compared with $34.2 billion a year earlier. For the first nine months of 2026, they totaled $172.2 billion, up from $89.9 billion in the same period of 2025.

Amazon’s free-cash-flow outflow was $42.4 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30. That figure covers a full year, not the third quarter alone. Amazon calculates free cash flow by subtracting property-and-equipment purchases, net of sale proceeds and incentives, from operating cash flow. For that 12-month period, operating cash flow was $168.3 billion and net property-and-equipment purchases were $210.657 billion.

Amazon attributed the increase in property-and-equipment purchases over that period primarily to AI investment. The company expects spending to increase meaningfully in 2027, mainly because of technology infrastructure, but did not provide a dollar estimate.

AWS generated $46 billion in third-quarter sales, up 39% from a year earlier. Its operating income rose to $17.8 billion from $11.4 billion. Amazon’s consolidated operating income increased to $28.1 billion from $17.4 billion.

Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy said the company’s investment in AWS functionality and infrastructure was working, pointing to the unit’s revenue growth: “Our AWS investment in functionality and infrastructure is working, with over 39% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3.”