Amazon AI revenue from cloud unit AWS has surpassed $15 billion on an annualised basis, CEO Andy Jassy disclosed in a shareholder letter, offering the most detailed financial breakdown of the company’s artificial intelligence business to date.
Based on first-quarter performance, that figure represents roughly 10 percent of AWS’s $142 billion revenue run rate. Jassy drew a direct comparison to AWS’s early growth, noting that three years after the cloud unit launched commercially it carried a $58 million revenue run rate. Amazon AI revenue at the same stage is nearly 260 times larger and, in his words, “ascending rapidly”.
$200 Billion Capex Plan Backs AI Push
Amazon plans to spend approximately $200 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, with a significant share directed at AI and related infrastructure. Jassy defended the scale of that commitment directly. “We’re not investing approximately $200 billion in capex in 2026 on a hunch,” he stated. He added that a large portion of future AWS investment already carries customer commitments and is expected to generate revenue in 2027 and 2028.
Custom Chip Business Doubles to $20 Billion Run Rate
Amazon’s custom silicon business, which includes the Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro product lines, doubled its annualised revenue run rate from the fourth quarter of 2025 to more than $20 billion. The unit is growing at triple-digit percentages year-on-year. Jassy described the chip business as “on fire”, saying it changes the economics for AWS and “will be much larger than most think”.
Amazon Eyes Third-Party Chip Sales
Beyond internal use, Jassy said demand for Amazon’s chips is strong enough to consider selling them externally. “There’s so much demand for our chips that it’s quite possible we’ll sell racks of them to third parties in the future,” he stated. The move would put Amazon in more direct competition with Nvidia in the data centre chip market.
Amazon, Google, and Meta Platforms are each developing proprietary chips to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. The trend reflects a broader shift in how large technology companies approach computing infrastructure, as AI workloads drive demand for specialised processors at scale.
Long-Term Profit Case for AI Investment
Jassy argued that Amazon’s aggressive spending positions the company for long-term leadership and significantly higher future profit and free cash flow. The shareholder letter marks the first time Amazon has provided specific annualised figures for its AI services within AWS, giving investors a clearer view of how the unit’s returns are materialising. With customer commitments already secured for future capacity, the company appears confident that current spending will translate into measurable returns over the next two years.
