Amazon Reports $201.9 Billion Quarterly Sales as AWS Growth Accelerates to 39%

Amazon reported third-quarter 2026 net sales of $201.9 billion on October 29, an increase of 12% from a year earlier, as its cloud-computing business grew much faster than its overall retail and services operations.

Amazon Web Services generated $46.0 billion in revenue, up 39% year over year. The cloud division's operating income reached $17.8 billion, compared with $11.4 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2025. Amazon said the growth reflected demand for computing capacity and services, including artificial-intelligence workloads. The company described the quarterly AWS revenue figure as equivalent to an annualized $184 billion run rate; that is a mathematical extrapolation, not annual revenue already earned.

Group operating income increased to $28.1 billion from $17.4 billion, producing an operating margin of 13.9%. However, reported net income declined slightly to $20.7 billion from $21.2 billion. Amazon attributed much of that year-on-year comparison to investment-related gains recorded in the previous year's quarter, rather than a fall in its operating profit.

Investment spending remains a significant pressure on cash generation. For the twelve months through September, Amazon reported negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion, compared with positive free cash flow of $14.8 billion a year earlier. It attributed the change primarily to higher purchases of property and equipment associated with AI infrastructure. Operating cash flow nevertheless increased to $168.3 billion over the same twelve-month period.

Amazon forecast fourth-quarter net sales of $240 billion to $247 billion and operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion. These are management projections, not completed results. The company also maintained its expectation of approximately $220 billion in 2026 cash capital expenditures. Investors will be watching whether rising cloud revenue can eventually offset the cash demands of expanding data centers.