SEATTLE, April 29, 2026, 13:03 PDT
- Amazon reported first-quarter revenue of $181.5 billion, up 17% from a year earlier, as Amazon Web Services posted a 28% gain.
- Amazon’s profits got a $16.8 billion pre-tax boost from its Anthropic investment, but free cash flow took a hit as the company ramped up spending on AI infrastructure.
- Amazon put its second-quarter revenue guidance between $194 billion and $199 billion, topping the $189.15 billion Wall Street had anticipated before the release.
Amazon.com delivered first-quarter results that topped Wall Street’s estimates on Wednesday. Revenue and profit both beat forecasts, as the company’s cloud segment posted its strongest growth rate in more than three years—15 quarters, to be exact—buoyed by AI-driven demand that took some of the sting out of elevated spending.
Seattle-based Amazon reported net sales up 17% to $181.5 billion for the quarter ended March 31, beating the $177.23 billion consensus estimate, according to Business Insider. Its cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, turned in $37.6 billion in sales, topping the $36.68 billion analysts had projected.
For Amazon, these numbers carry weight—it’s under pressure to prove that its AI investments are delivering sales, instead of just piling on costs for servers, semiconductors, and electricity. Wednesday had Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta all slated to deliver earnings, stacking the deck for a critical, simultaneous read on the main players powering the AI infrastructure surge.
Amazon posted operating income of $23.9 billion, up from $18.4 billion a year ago. Net income landed at $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share. That figure, however, reflects $16.8 billion in pre-tax gains stemming from Amazon’s Anthropic stake. Analysts, going into the report, had penciled in $1.62 per share and operating income closer to $20.75 billion.
Andy Jassy, the chief executive, put AWS growth at 28%, emphasizing it’s “on a very large base.” The company’s chips division, he said, has crossed a $20 billion annualized revenue run rate. On advertising, Jassy pointed to more than $70 billion in trailing-12-month revenue. Amazon’s stores unit also posted 15% growth in units sold. Business Wire
Amazon’s AI story comes into sharp focus in the cloud numbers. RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson, ahead of the report, called the quarter “pivotal”—the key test of whether AWS can pick up enough speed to backstop Amazon’s $200 billion capital-expenditure plan. That spending covers big investments: data centers, servers, chips. Business Insider
Amazon’s free cash flow came in at $1.2 billion for the trailing 12 months, a sharp drop from $25.9 billion a year ago. The company attributed the decline mostly to a $59.3 billion year-over-year jump in property and equipment purchases, with AI investments largely behind the surge.
Amazon set its second-quarter revenue outlook between $194 billion and $199 billion, signaling a growth range of 16% to 19%. Operating income is expected to land between $20 billion and $24 billion, up from last year’s $19.2 billion. The company noted that these projections factor in Prime Day taking place during the quarter.
Expectations were lofty. Ahead of the numbers, BofA’s Justin Post flagged “strong demand for AWS,” although he cautioned that slim AWS margins from the prior quarter might spark fresh worries over capex returns. UBS’s Stephen Ju, for his part, argued the Street was still underestimating AWS revenue growth for 2026, noting, “the Street will catch up to where we are now.” Business Insider
Competition among the big players is tight and stakes are high. Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud had been forecast to outpace AWS in cloud growth, whereas Meta’s capital outlays are mostly linked to its AI-powered ad business and underlying models. What unites them? All four are lumped together by investors tracking how their combined AI infrastructure spending is set to top $600 billion this year.
Still, the risk remains. Even with a solid AWS quarter, it’s not clear Amazon can push AI investment higher without putting a dent in cash flow. The company flagged energy costs, geopolitics, tariffs, chip availability, and shifts in customer demand as variables that might impact outcomes.
Options markets were anticipating a swing of nearly 7% in Amazon shares for the week, Investopedia reported, highlighting the extent to which Big Tech earnings are carrying the AI narrative. Visible Alpha data showed analysts leaning optimistic ahead of results: 20 issued buy ratings, while two sat neutral.
Amazon was set to hold its conference call at 2:30 p.m. Pacific. Investors want straight answers: What’s the real appetite for more AWS capacity? How fast can Amazon scale up chips like Trainium? And then there’s the $200 billion spending plan—can it keep fueling growth without eating into free cash flow?
