Amazon 2026 Capex Guidance: ~$220B vs Actual Spend

What does Amazon's 2026 capex guidance cover?

Amazon now expects approximately $220 billion of companywide cash capital expenditure in 2026, up from its prior estimate of about $200 billion, mainly due to memory costs. On the July 30 call, Andy Jassy said that even at that level Amazon will not have enough capacity to meet 2026 demand, and he expects the same in 2027. Management connects much of the increase to AI and AWS demand, but the plan also funds chips, robotics, fulfillment, transportation and satellite infrastructure. It is therefore the least AI-specific headline number in the four-company comparison. On October 29 Amazon kept the plan at about $220 billion, said the majority is for AWS, and said it expects to spend meaningfully more in 2027. Third-quarter purchases of property and equipment were $77.26 billion, or $75.9 billion net of proceeds and incentives, so three quarters already account for about 80% of the plan.

What counts as capex for Amazon?

Amazon's guidance covers the whole company rather than an AWS-only or AI-only capital budget. Its cash-flow statement reports property-and-equipment purchases net of proceeds and incentives, while the guidance discussed by management is a broader planning figure. Analysts should not label the full $220 billion as GPU or data-center spending.

• AWS data centers, networking and compute capacity for conventional cloud workloads and AI services.
• Custom silicon programs including Trainium and Graviton, alongside third-party accelerators.
• Robotics, fulfillment, transportation, devices and low-earth-orbit satellite infrastructure outside AWS.

How should investors read Amazon's spending?

Amazon shows the cash cost of the buildout most visibly. In its third-quarter update, the company said trailing free cash flow had moved to a $42.4 billion outflow, from a $7.6 billion outflow a quarter earlier, driven primarily by a $94.8 billion year-over-year increase in property-and-equipment purchases net of proceeds and incentives. The investment case depends on AWS and AI revenue eventually producing a durable cash-flow surplus large enough to justify both the cloud investment and the non-AWS projects included in the same capex envelope.

For the company's reported revenue, margins and filings, see the Amazon (AMZN) stock research page. For the four-company total, see the 2026 hyperscaler capex tracker.