Amazon’s AI build-out just pushed its cash burn to a record: Chart of the Day

Wall Street spent the week punishing Big Tech’s biggest AI spenders. Amazon (AMZN) just posted the deepest cash burn in its history.

Amazon’s free cash flow — the cash left after paying for data centers, warehouses, and equipment — was an outflow of more than $42 billion over the 12 months through September, according to its third quarter results released Thursday. That’s nearly double the previous record of about $23 billion, set in 2022 after Amazon overbuilt its warehouse network. Three months earlier, the outflow was less than $8 billion.

One quarter did most of the damage. Amazon spent about $77 billion on property and equipment from July through September, more than double the $35 billion it spent a year earlier. Its operations brought in about $42 billion, leaving a gap of roughly $33 billion over three months, according to Yahoo Finance calculations.

So far, the spending is working.