Amazon reports $94.8 billion increase in property spending tied mainly to AI

Amazon said purchases of property and equipment, net of sales proceeds and incentives, rose by $94.8 billion year over year in the 12 months ended Sept. 30. The company said the increase primarily reflected investments in artificial intelligence. In the same third-quarter results, Amazon Web Services reported $45.98 billion in net sales, up 39% from a year earlier.

The investment weighed on cash generation even as operating cash flow grew. Amazon reported a trailing-12-month free-cash-flow outflow of $42.36 billion, compared with a $14.79 billion inflow in the prior-year period. Operating cash flow rose 29% to $168.3 billion from $130.7 billion over the same comparison.

The $94.8 billion figure represents a year-over-year increase in a trailing-12-month measure, not spending for the third quarter alone. Amazon’s underlying table puts property and equipment purchases, net of proceeds and incentives, at $210.66 billion for the latest 12 months, versus $115.90 billion a year earlier.

That historical measure is also separate from Amazon’s forward-looking capital-spending guidance. The company said it continued to expect about $220 billion in cash capital expenditures for all of 2026, above the approximately $200 billion in 2026 capital expenditures Amazon forecast in February.

AWS operating income rose 55% to $17.77 billion from $11.43 billion, while quarterly sales increased from $33.01 billion a year earlier.

Amazon’s investment measure has climbed since its second-quarter disclosure, which showed a $66.1 billion year-over-year increase in trailing-12-month property and equipment purchases and likewise attributed the increase primarily to AI investments.