Amazon is nearing $3 trillion and all-time highs after CEO Andy Jassy highlighted a $496 billion backlog and the returns locked in on its AI spending. That bullish story deserves more attention than it is getting. x.com
Jeff Kilburg
Founder, CEO & CIO of KKM Financial, Contributor to CNBC
Amazon's record AI spending looks backed by AWS demand, despite pressure on near-term profit. AWS grew 39% to $46bn, and CEO Andy Jassy projects growth above 40% in both 2027 and 2028. Quarterly capex reached $77.3bn, almost $20bn above expectations; the Q4 profit guide missed and retail ads softened. AWS acceleration makes the drop worth buying. Overweight; $370 target. x.com x.com
AWS's rapid growth in a huge business makes the long-term outlook decisively bullish for Amazon and the AI ecosystem. AWS revenue grew 39.3% year over year in September 2026; management guides for growth above 40% in 2027 and 2028. Amazon is always very conservative with guidance, making that AI outlook doubly bullish. x.com x.com x.com
Amazon's negative free cash flow and far-off AWS guidance add to its investment risk. Free cash flow is -$42 billion. True_yes_man describes Jassy extrapolating fourth-quarter AWS revenue at 40% growth for five years. That guide cannot be taken seriously; it resembles the Tesla and Nvidia playbook of projecting years ahead to support the market into the midterms, then recalibrating later. x.com x.com
Amazon's AWS acceleration is beginning to support the case for its heavy AI investment cycle. Q3 AWS revenue grew 39.3% to $46B and operating income rose 55% to $17.8B; company operating margin hit a record 13.9%. Andy Jassy says Prime Video generates tens of billions in annualized revenue and is independently profitable. The EPS miss, slower 11% ad growth and roughly $220B of 2026 capex remain worth watching, but the long-term view stays extremely bullish. x.com
Amazon's AWS acceleration keeps the AI investment bet compelling, but its financing burden is growing. AWS grew 39%, its fastest in five years, and operating margin reached a record 13.9%. Yet trailing free cash flow is negative $42.4B as capex exceeds cash generation, and long-term debt rose from $65.5B to $173.1B. The long-term bet is that AI changes everyday life enough to justify that spend. x.com
Hyperscalers' incremental return on capital is cratering, so hard spending decisions are coming. In the June quarter, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet grew LTM EBIT 20% but needed 38% more deployed capital, before token prices cratered and with much demand from non-self-sustaining OpenAI. Compute and models may become a utility-like commodity. Insiders are selling, with Jeff Bezos filing to sell $4B of Amazon stock, and Google's $25B bond deal widened hyperscaler credit spreads. x.com x.com
The prospect of trillion-dollar revenue makes the bearish case for Amazon hard to accept. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says no business has reached that scale, but there may be two in the next 5–10 years. x.com
Amazon has an incredible growth runway, and Andy Jassy's latest shareholder letter leaves no doubt that it is the leader in AI. x.com
The selloff in AI hyperscalers is a valuation and free cash flow reset on a still-tight buildout, not a thesis break. Alphabet raised 2026 capex to $195-205B and printed its first negative free cash flow quarter, and the market now asks whether capex converts to cash fast enough to justify prices. Capex can keep rising while the stocks fall. Watch whether capex guidance keeps climbing with confident monetization talk; a capex cut or negative memory server contracts would break the thesis. x.com
Amazon's AI and cloud demand is red hot into 2027 and beyond, enough that it raised capex guidance from $200B to $220B just to keep up. Its earnings were a masterclass in operational excellence. x.com