Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company expects to spend about $220 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 but will still leave some Amazon Web Services (AWS) demand unmet.
Jassy said AWS has booked a sizable portion of its 2028 capacity, while customers have committed to most of the larger allocations planned for 2027. He described its 2026 supply as sold out, but said the cloud unit retains some capacity for on-demand use. The remarks came in an a16z podcast released Friday, Oct. 23. “We’re leaving a meaningful amount of demand on the table,” he said.
Amazon’s second-quarter 2026 results showed AWS net sales at $42.2 billion for the three months through June 30, up 37% from the same quarter a year earlier. The company also said its AWS AI business had an annual revenue run rate above $25 billion, with triple-digit year-over-year growth.
Amazon’s Feb. 5 results release put companywide capital spending for 2026 at about $200 billion. Jassy cited about $220 billion in October without specifying how much would go to AWS; the figures came from estimates made at different times.
Jassy pointed to AI research groups that consume substantial computing resources and businesses adopting the technology to improve efficiency or trim expenses as sources of demand. He said Amazon starts investing in data centers about two years before servers can be installed and the resulting capacity can generate revenue. That schedule puts facility spending well ahead of the point when cloud capacity can earn money. Servers and networking equipment can be bought only a few months ahead of deployment.
Amazon has also earmarked €4.8 billion for a 2027 expansion of its Frankfurt cloud region. The long lead times add context to EconoTimes’ earlier coverage of AWS infrastructure costs.
Amazon is scheduled to discuss its third-quarter results on Thursday, Oct. 29.
