Via aboutamazon.com
AWS revenue hit $42.2 billion in Q2, growing 37% year-over-year as AI workloads supercharge Amazon's cloud division far beyond analyst expectations.
Amazon just posted the kind of quarter that makes competitors quietly update their strategy decks. AWS, the company’s cloud computing division, pulled in $42.2 billion in Q2 2026 revenue, a 37% jump from the same period a year ago. That’s the fastest growth rate the segment has posted in 18 quarters, or roughly four and a half years.
Analysts had penciled in something closer to 31% growth, with consensus estimates around $40.5 billion in revenue. AWS beat that by a comfortable margin, turning what was already an optimistic outlook into a number that reframes the competitive dynamics of the entire cloud industry.
The numbers behind the surge #
AWS is now running at a $169 billion annualized revenue rate. CEO Andy Jassy pointed out that if AWS were a standalone company, it would rank among the top 25 in the US by revenue.
Operating income for the segment climbed 64% to $16.6 billion, with margins reaching 39.4%. AWS now accounts for more than 60% of Amazon’s total operating income, making it not just the growth engine but the profit engine of the entire company.
Amazon’s overall Q2 net sales hit $200.6 billion, up 20% year-over-year. Total operating income rose 43% to $27.5 billion. The cloud division’s acceleration from 28% growth in Q1 (on $37.6 billion in revenue) to 37% in Q2 represents a meaningful re-acceleration after a period of post-pandemic moderation.
AI is doing the heavy lifting #
The company’s custom chips business, built around its Trainium and Inferentia processors, has exceeded a $25 billion annual run rate. AWS’s broader AI services have hit the same threshold.
Amazon raised its full-year capital expenditure outlook to fund more AI infrastructure. The spending is aggressive enough that free cash flow turned negative on a trailing-twelve-month basis, even as operating cash flow remained healthy.
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