What would it take for AWS to become a $1 trillion annual revenue business?
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, believes it can reach that scale. Getting there, he says, requires a substantial infrastructure investment first.
Amazon expects approximately $220 billion in cash capital expenditures in 2026, the majority for AWS, and meaningfully higher spending in 2027. Capital expenditures fund long-term assets, including the infrastructure needed to support its cloud business.
The distinction matters: $220 billion is Amazon’s planned spending, with most allocated to AWS.
Growth and expectations
AWS revenue increased 39% from the year-ago quarter. Jassy also described AWS as a $184 billion annualized revenue run-rate business—a measure that expresses its current revenue pace over a full year.
Those figures describe the business today. The $1 trillion ambition describes what Jassy believes it could become; it is not an achieved result.
Jassy also forecast 40% AWS revenue growth in 2027 and 2028. That remains management’s forecast, rather than a verified outcome.
The spending question
During the earnings call, Wall Street analysts repeatedly asked about the scale of the investment, the signals supporting future demand, and expected profit margins.
Jassy’s argument is that AI is driving an exceptional opportunity in global cloud demand, making the infrastructure investment worthwhile. That is management’s case for the spending, while investors’ questions highlight the uncertainty around its eventual returns.
The useful distinction is between spending, growth and profitability. A larger infrastructure budget shows the scale of Amazon’s commitment. Revenue growth shows demand translating into sales. The financial returns still need to justify the investment.
As Amazon’s spending rises, assess AWS revenue growth alongside profit margins and management’s evidence of demand to judge whether the investment case is holding up.