NEW YORK, Feb 6, 2026, 15:03 EST
- Amazon shares slipped roughly 7% during afternoon hours after the company set out a $200 billion capital spending forecast for 2026.
- Long delays hooking up to Europe’s power grids are putting the brakes on AWS’s data center growth, the company says.
- Investors are questioning if the ramp-up in AI spending will deliver returns quickly enough, especially as infrastructure bottlenecks start to pinch.
Amazon shares slipped roughly 7% to $206.31 Friday, as the company warned of a substantial increase in spending aimed at expanding artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.
Amazon is diving headlong into a surge in cloud-sector spending, but Wall Street’s patience appears to be wearing thin. The company’s capex forecast jumps from $131 billion in 2025 to a hefty $200 billion the following year, targeting investments in assets like data centers and chips. Investors didn’t like it — shares dropped 11.5% after hours on Thursday. “The market just dislikes the substantial amount of money that keeps getting put into capex for these growth rates,” said Dave Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. 1
But turning investment into actual electricity is another matter. Pamela MacDougall, who heads up energy markets and regulation for Amazon Web Services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Reuters on Feb. 3 that plugging into Europe’s grid can drag on for as long as seven years. That’s a sharp contrast to the roughly two years it usually takes to get a data center built. She called the slow pace “challenging our growth aspirations.” The European Commission wants to put a two-year ceiling on grid-permit times. Yet, according to an industry group, Italy and Spain are still stuck with piles of “speculative” grid requests, jamming up the process for legitimate projects. MacDougall also serves as vice-chair at GIGA, an upstart association including Meta, Google, and EV charging player Fastned. 2
Amazon isn’t slowing down, at least on paper. An AWS spokesperson told ITPro the company is looking to “rapidly expand its infrastructure across Europe,” with investments set for edge locations and data center regions in over 20 countries. “We remain committed to expanding at pace to meet growing customer demand,” the spokesperson said. ITPro pointed to Amazon’s Q3 2025 filings, which showed more than 3.8 gigawatts of power added over the previous year. AWS, the report said, has plans to keep building out capacity through 2026 and 2027. 3
Heading into the spending data, traders were already on alert for volatility. On Feb. 4, Amazon shares dipped ahead of earnings, with options markets signaling an expected swing of about 7% on the results, TS2.tech noted. Options let investors lock in a buy or sell price for shares. 4
It’s not just a single stock putting investors on edge. “Expectations are really high” and “many areas, especially around AI, are priced for perfection,” John Campbell, senior portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, told Reuters earlier this week. 5
Data centers draw power well ahead of earning a dollar, making grid access a real choke point. Delays in hookups can freeze projects, push them into new locations, or jack up costs just to lock in supply.
Quicker rules don’t always translate to quicker wires. Permits, gear, and workers are still required for grid upgrades. If AI demand slips, or rivals force prices lower, the return on data center investments could take longer to materialize.
Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud are locked in a direct battle, each ramping up investment in AI infrastructure. For investors, the focus has narrowed: just how fast does all this spending convert to real capacity, and can enough of it actually get powered up when needed?
