Amazon Reports Record Q3 Revenue Driven by AWS Growth
Amazon reported record third-quarter revenue of $201.94 billion, fueled by a surge in cloud computing and AI services despite a slowdown in core e-commerce sales.
Amazon.com reported record financial results for the third quarter of 2026, achieving $201.94 billion in revenue and a 13.9% operating margin. The company's operating income grew 61% year-over-year, though shares fell 4.25% during the regular trading session following the announcement.
Growth was primarily driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which saw revenue increase nearly 40% year-over-year to approximately $46 billion. CEO Andy Jassy attributed this surge to AI services and increased commitments for proprietary Graviton and Trainium chips, noting a sevenfold increase in AWS Bedrock spending by Fortune 500 companies. Jassy projected that AWS could become a trillion-dollar revenue business within five to 10 years, with growth exceeding 40% in both 2027 and 2028.
To support this trajectory and address a $578 billion order backlog, Amazon plans to spend approximately $220 billion on data center infrastructure in 2026, with further increases planned for 2027.
In contrast, the core e-commerce business experienced a significant slowdown. Online store sales grew by only 2% and third-party sales by 9%. While Amazon maintains a 40.5% share of the U.S. e-commerce market and expanded ultrafast delivery to 450 towns and cities, competitor Walmart increased its U.S. market share to 9.2% and reported 23% growth in global e-commerce sales.
