Oct 29, 2026 earnings call — AWS AI growth and company results
Amazon reported $201.9 billion in revenue, up 12% year-over-year, and AWS revenue grew 39.3% to $46 billion.
Revenue $201.9B (est $202.2B) · EPS $1.89 (est $1.97) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $240.0B–$247.0B
Key quotes
"We're installing an AI accelerator about every 14 seconds, and almost as fast as we install capacity, customers are gobbling it up."
"On the AI side, we continue to expand the capabilities of our inference service, Amazon Bedrock, and it is leading to remarkable growth, with Fortune 500 companies spending nearly 7x more on Bedrock year-over-year and total Bedrock token volume growing nearly 17x year-over-year."
"Year to date, units have grown nearly 15% year-over-year, and that's on an enormous base, having sold more than 30 billion items last year."
Analyst Q&A 6
AWS growth drivers and fuel costs
Q (Justin Post · BofA): He asked why AWS quarter-over-quarter growth slowed and about capacity adds for Q4. He also asked if fuel costs affect Q4 guidance.
A: Management said AWS growth remains strong and is driven by many AI products and custom chips, and that capacity additions vary quarter-to-quarter with more capacity coming over the next eight to 10 quarters. On fuel, management said fuel costs are higher in Q4 than Q3 and noted a fuel surcharge for FBA sellers that recovers some but not all fuel costs.
"I would say, I don't have an exact number for you, but it is higher in Q4 than it was in Q3." — Brian Olsavsky (CFO)
How AWS can reach $1T and robotics plans
Q (Brian Nowak · Morgan Stanley): He asked how AWS could reach a trillion dollars in 5–10 years (top-down or bottom-up reasoning) and what robotics milestones matter for Retail in 2027.
A: Management said the growth rates and customer demand make a trillion-dollar outcome plausible and that enterprise inference use is still early. On robotics, they said Amazon already has over 1 million robots, robotics have cut safety incidents and improved productivity, many repetitive jobs will move to robots, and new facility designs are heavy on robotics.
"It's not a stretch for us to imagine that this could be over a trillion-dollar business." — Andy Jassy (CEO)
AWS margins and perishables effect
Q (Mark Mahaney · Evercore): He asked whether AWS operating margins can stay in the high 30s/40% range over the next two years. He also asked how much perishable checkout covers Prime households and how much it boosts spend per household.
A: Management would not give a margin guide but said AWS had a very strong operating margin this quarter and that recent profitability reflects efficiency gains, capacity optimization, fixed-cost discipline, and more custom chips; AI growth can put margin pressure because AI margins are lower. On perishables, they said shipping perishables from same-day facilities is crucial; Everyday Essentials has grown faster and customers who buy perishables buy many more Everyday Essentials and buy more non-grocery items.
"What we find is customers who shop perishables through our same-day delivery, they buy about seven time more Everyday Essential units than those that do not." — Brian Olsavsky (CFO)
Bedrock scale and selling Trainium chips
Q (Eric Sheridan · Goldman Sachs): He asked what Bedrock learnings say about its market opportunity and how to balance selling Trainium chips externally versus using them inside AWS.
A: Management said customers will use multiple models and want a service with broad model selection, good price performance, and strong security, and that Bedrock could be as large as EC2. On chips, they said there is a trade-off: selling chips externally gives more short-term revenue, while using chips inside the cloud drives more long-term revenue and free cash flow over five to six years; AWS plans to start selling chips externally in late 2027 and will reassess the balance regularly.
"If you sell externally, you are able to realize more revenue in the short term because you get to recognize the revenue as soon as it leaves your inventory." — Andy Jassy (CEO)
CapEx needs and infrastructure payback
Q (Doug Anmuth · JPMorgan): He asked about the CapEx required to support 40%+ AWS revenue growth and about the duration of returns on servers, networking, and data centers.
A: Management said they are shortening break-even times on infrastructure and making progress extending useful lives and improving payback. They said the CapEx required is meaningful but that the AI opportunity is once in a lifetime, they will invest to keep leadership, and they can fund the plan.
"I think that the way we think about it, Doug, is that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity." — Andy Jassy (CEO)
Trainium use for Bedrock and margin effects
Q (Ross Sandler · Barclays): He asked how Bedrock running on Trainium affects AWS revenue growth and margins as the business shifts from selling bare metal to inference-as-a-service.
A: Management said the majority of Bedrock runs on Trainium because of its price performance and that this supports low prices for customers and favorable margins for AWS. They also said owning or long-leasing data centers and using their own chips gives AWS structural cost advantages versus providers that rely more on colo or neoclouds.
"Well, you are right, that the majority and most of Bedrock today is being run on top of Trainium." — Andy Jassy (CEO)