New York, March 3, 2026, 16:28 (ET) — Trading after the bell
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) finished after-hours unmoved, as AWS disclosed that drone attacks hit data centers in both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, forcing a lengthy service recovery. Shares ended up 0.1% at $208.65, swinging between $202.06 and $209.16 during the day’s regular session.
Physical infrastructure getting knocked out—that’s exactly the scenario cloud companies build redundancy for. Markets usually don’t bother modeling these risks, not until reality forces the issue.
The timing isn’t great for Amazon. Investors are banking on surging cloud and AI demand to support yet another wave of data-center investment—just as geopolitical tensions are pushing back.
AWS disclosed another event Sunday, noting that “objects” hit a UAE data center, sparking a blaze and sending out sparks. Firefighters shut off power as they tried to get the fire under control. According to AWS, an “Availability Zone” refers to one or more linked data centers within an AWS region. Reuters
Three AWS facilities in the area took hits in the latest strikes, highlighting the cloud giant’s reliance on physical infrastructure—actual buildings and power grids matter. AWS operates data centers in 39 regions worldwide, usually distributing workloads across several zones to prevent a single outage from disrupting an entire region, according to the Associated Press.
Amazon rolled out fresh expansion plans for Europe, announcing Monday it will pump another 18 billion euros ($21 billion) into Spain to ramp up data center capacity and fuel AI development. That brings its total spend in the country to 33.7 billion euros. The news came after Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met with Amazon’s global affairs and legal chief David Zapolsky at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “With this investment, we make Spain the AI epicentre of our operations in Europe,” Zapolsky said. Reuters
Amazon Data Services is picking up George Washington University’s Virginia Science and Technology campus in Ashburn in a $427 million deal, GWU confirmed. The move slots into the ongoing AI infrastructure buildout. Amazon has yet to respond to requests for comment. GWU noted it will be able to continue its programs on the property for up to five years. This year alone, tech companies have pledged upwards of $630 billion toward AI-related infrastructure, Reuters reports, sparking investor worries over a possible spending bubble.
Company news broke against a backdrop of jittery sentiment. Oil jumped close to 7% out of the gate as Middle East tensions escalated, ramping up pressure on growth names.
Amazon’s short-term headache is operational. If AWS goes down for too long, customers might shift workloads elsewhere, and a few could start eyeing alternate providers. The bigger issue, though, is what happens with spending in 2026: will data-center construction keep pace with demand, or will supply start to get ahead?
Eyes are on AWS for the latest status update, while any new pledges on cloud and AI from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona—running through March 5—could shift sentiment. Stateside, traders are waiting for Friday’s February jobs print, set for release March 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET, a potential mover for bond yields and tech giants.
