Amazon reported third quarter net sales of 201.9 billion dollars, up 12 percent from a year earlier, and operating income of 28.1 billion dollars, a 13.9 percent margin the company called its highest ever. AWS sales rose 39 percent to 46.0 billion dollars, the fastest growth in nearly five years, taking the segment to a 184 billion dollar annualized run rate, and AWS operating income rose to 17.8 billion dollars from 11.4 billion. Net income fell to 20.7 billion dollars, or 1.89 dollars per diluted share, from 21.2 billion a year earlier, when the result included a 9.5 billion dollar pre-tax gain on Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.
For the fourth quarter, Amazon guided net sales to between 240 billion and 247 billion dollars, up 12 to 16 percent, and operating income to between 28.5 billion and 33.5 billion dollars, against 25.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. The sales range straddles the analysts’ average estimate of 244.51 billion dollars compiled by LSEG, with its midpoint below it, and Reuters described the guidance as below estimates, citing muted holiday demand and higher household costs. The cost side is the other half of the release: free cash flow over the trailing twelve months was an outflow of 42.4 billion dollars, driven by a 94.8 billion dollar year over year increase in purchases of property and equipment that Amazon attributed mainly to artificial intelligence investment, and the company said it still expects about 220 billion dollars of cash capital expenditures in 2026.