What the numbers show
Amazon said free cash flow fell to minus $42.4bn in the 12 months to September, down from a positive $14.8bn a year earlier. The company attributed most of the drop to AI spending.
Growth and profitability
Third-quarter revenue rose 12% to $201.9bn. Operating income climbed to $28.1bn from $17.4bn a year earlier, and the AWS cloud unit grew 39%.
The 2027 plan
Amazon said it will increase capital expenditure on AI infrastructure further in 2027, signalling that pressure on cash flow will persist in the near term.
Why it matters
AWS underpins both model training and cloud demand in the AI race. Amazon's willingness to keep spending points to sustained demand across the chip and data centre supply chain through 2027.
