Amazon.com recently released its fiscal second-quarter financial report for 2026. Driven by robust performance in artificial intelligence and cloud computing, the company's quarterly revenue surged significantly, far exceeding market expectations. However, due to ongoing massive infrastructure investments in this area, its free cash flow turned negative during the period, drawing market attention.
Data shows that Amazon's second-quarter net sales increased 20% year-over-year to $200.6 billion, substantially surpassing the market's forecast of $196.4 billion. North American sales rose 16% to $116.2 billion, while international sales grew 15% to $42.2 billion. Net profit for the quarter soared to $62.6 billion, with $53.4 billion in pretax earnings primarily attributed to returns from investments in AI startup Anthropic. Following the earnings release, Amazon's after-hours stock price jumped 9.4%.
In terms of core business segments, Amazon Web Services became a key engine driving revenue growth. AWS sales in the second quarter surged 37% year-over-year to $42.2 billion, marking the fastest growth rate in the past 18 quarters. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy noted that AWS is in a high-growth phase, with its AI and chip businesses both achieving annualized revenues exceeding $25 billion, each showing triple-digit strong growth momentum. As a leading global cloud service provider, Amazon, alongside major competitors like Microsoft and Google, delivered cloud service results that surpassed Wall Street expectations.
While revenue reached new highs, substantial capital expenditures also pressured Amazon's cash flow. According to the report, over the past 12 months ending June 30, due to large-scale AI infrastructure investments (particularly $66.1 billion spent on acquiring assets and equipment), Amazon's free cash flow turned from an inflow of $18.2 billion in the same period last year to an outflow of $7.6 billion. This data highlights the ongoing intense capital competition among global tech giants in the AI race, while also sparking debate over the sustainability of such high-cost investment models.
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