Amazon's sales rose 12% to $201.9 billion in the July to September quarter, landing at the top of the $197 billion to $202 billion range the company forecast in July. Its third-quarter report, filed Thursday, October 29, shows operating income of $28.1 billion, beating the July forecast of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion, while spending on data centers and equipment more than doubled.
The quarter in numbers
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | $201.9 billion | $180.2 billion | Up 12% |
| AWS cloud sales | $46.0 billion | $33.0 billion | Up 39% |
| North America sales | $112.9 billion | $106.3 billion | Up 6% |
| Advertising | $19.6 billion | $17.7 billion | Up 11% |
| Operating income | $28.1 billion | $17.4 billion | Up 61% |
| Net income | $20.7 billion | $21.2 billion | Down 2% |
| Purchases of property and equipment | $77.3 billion | $35.1 billion | More than doubled |
Prime Day moved this year. Most large countries held it in the second quarter, while in 2025 it fell entirely in the third, and Amazon says sales growth would have been about 4 percentage points higher without the shift. The same timing held down advertising growth, which the company expects to pick back up to the high teens in the fourth quarter.
Net income slipped even as operating income jumped because last year's third quarter included $9.5 billion in pretax gains on Amazon's investment in Anthropic.
Where the money is going
AWS, Amazon's cloud unit, grew at its fastest pace in nearly five years and earned $17.8 billion in operating income, more than the North America and international retail segments combined. CEO Andy Jassy said in the release that the company projects AWS revenue growth of more than 40% in both 2027 and 2028.
Amazon says most of the year-over-year jump in its equipment and data center spending went to artificial intelligence. Over the past 12 months, that spending turned free cash flow negative: an outflow of $42.4 billion, compared with a $14.8 billion inflow a year earlier. The company continues to expect about $220 billion in cash capital spending for 2026.
What Amazon expects for the holidays
For the October to December quarter, which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon forecasts net sales of $240 billion to $247 billion, up 12% to 16% from a year earlier, and operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion, compared with $25.0 billion in the same quarter of 2025.
The report also lists two staffing announcements Amazon made since its last earnings report: more than 300,000 seasonal, part-time and full-time hires across its U.S. operations, and a $1.5 billion-plus investment to raise minimum starting pay for full-time U.S. operations workers to $20 an hour.
Amazon's call with analysts, webcast at 2 p.m. Pacific (5 p.m. Eastern) on Thursday, stays available for at least three months on its investor relations site.
