Amazon Posts Fastest AWS Growth in Five Years at 39%, Guides to $220B Capex

Amazon reported Q3 2026 revenue of $201.9 billion and net income of $20.7 billion, with Amazon Web Services posting its strongest growth in years.

Key Points:

• AWS revenue up 39% year over year to $46 billion — the fastest growth rate in nearly five years

• Services backlog of $578 billion

• Guiding to roughly $220 billion in 2026 capital spending

• Despite strong AWS numbers, multiple outlets reported Amazon's stock reaction as a miss relative to Wall Street expectations

Why It Matters: AWS's accelerating growth rate suggests enterprise AI workloads are driving cloud demand at a pace that surprises even optimistic forecasters. The massive capex guidance shows Amazon is betting this acceleration continues.