Amazon now spends more on building its business than the business brings in as cash. On its July 2026 earnings call, management raised its 2026 spending plan to about $220 billion. Most of the prior $200 billion budget had been allocated toward AI and AWS. Management has not said when the spending will slow, though it noted on the call that Amazon has already issued debt this year and cited further borrowing among its options to cover any shortfall. So could Amazon keep paying for the build-out if that gap keeps growing?
Amazon’s Cash Covers A Year, But Shares Could Drop
Yes, for at least a year, Amazon could pay for a wider gap from the cash it already holds. Over the last twelve months, its operations brought in $161.4 billion of cash. Amazon spent $173 billion on capital projects such as data centers in the same period.
Free cash flow is the cash left after that spending. Amazon’s free cash flow was negative $11.6 billion over those twelve months. A…