Amazon stock price jumps as Wall Street rethinks $200 billion AI bet

24 March 2026

New York, March 23, 2026, 19:30 (EDT)

Amazon.com ended Monday up roughly 2.3%, settling at $210.14 and outpacing both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. The stock’s climb followed a broad rally across Wall Street and a new upbeat analyst report on Amazon.

Amazon’s rebound stands out, given the company’s uneasy run through 2026 as Wall Street doubts the payoff schedule for its heavy AI outlays. The stock had shed nearly 11% for the year ahead of Monday, with scrutiny ramping up in February when Amazon committed to a $200 billion capex budget—up sharply from $131 billion in 2025—driven mostly by AI infrastructure plans.

Jefferies’ Brent Thill isn’t budging on Amazon, calling the shares “mispriced, not broken” in a note out Monday and sticking with his $300 target. Thill, according to MarketWatch, pointed out Amazon’s cash-profit valuation is down to the lowest level since 2008, even as its retail business stays resilient and AWS continues its growth streak. MarketWatch

Amazon Web Services still holds the spotlight for the stock, delivering $35.6 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter—a 24% jump, and the quickest pace seen there in 13 quarters. Operating income from AWS hit $12.5 billion. Yet, Microsoft Azure managed to climb 39%, and Google Cloud surged 48% over the same stretch.

Chief Executive Andy Jassy isn’t buying talk that Amazon is expanding too aggressively. In comments reviewed by Reuters last week, he argued that artificial intelligence could push AWS to $600 billion a year in sales by 2036. Jassy pointed to “very clear and significant demand signals” justifying the infrastructure push. Back in February, he told investors he was counting on a “strong long-term return” from the planned outlays for 2026. Reuters

The scale of the build-out is evident in the financing numbers. Amazon tapped U.S. and euro bond markets for roughly $54 billion equivalent this month, drawing orders nearly four times bigger than the sale itself. Afterward, Bank of America bumped up its 2026 debt issuance outlook for the major cloud players—Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft—as all four scramble to expand AI capacity.

Monday’s surge probably owes as much to a break in macro jitters as to anything specific about Amazon. U.S. equities got a lift after oil tumbled over 10%—that came after President Donald Trump decided to hold off on striking Iranian power plants. Consumer-discretionary names drove the S&P 500 higher, putting Amazon in the limelight. But if that supportive environment slips—or AWS growth still doesn’t persuade investors the current spending is justified—Amazon’s rally could easily stall.

Amazon’s financials leave the debate unsettled. Operating cash flow climbed to $139.5 billion in 2025, yet free cash flow after capex shrank to $11.2 billion as spending on property and equipment surged—mostly tied to AI. The stock? It’s caught right between: growth is speeding ahead, but investors are still watching for that payoff.

Khadija Saeed Latest posts

Khadija Saeed is a financial markets reporter at TS2.tech. Her coverage ranges from stocks and technology to emerging industries and developments across global markets. She studied economics and finance at the London School of Economics and worked in market research before becoming a financial journalist. Follow Khadija Saeed on Google News.

View all