Amazon CEO Andy Jassy used this week’s earnings call to make an extraordinary prediction: Amazon could eventually contain two businesses generating $1 trillion apiece in annual revenue. One is its sprawling retail operation. The other is AWS, which currently has a $184 billion annualized revenue run rate but which Jassy expects to grow by more than 40% in each of the next two years. Realizing that ambition will require breathtaking spending. Amazon expects capital expenditures of approximately $220 billion this year and “meaningfully more” in 2027, a wager that the present rush to build AI infrastructure will produce one of the largest businesses in corporate history.
Here is what stood out from the Amazon call, along with Starbucks’ latest account of its turnaround and EMCOR’s view from the front lines of the data-center buildout.