Amazon’s cloud sales post fastest growth since 2022 on AI demand

Amazon’s cloud computing unit posted its fastest quarterly sales growth in more than three years, supported by rising artificial intelligence (AI) demand and expanded data center capacity.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $37.6 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2026, up 28% from the same period last year, marking its strongest growth rate since the second quarter of 2022, the company said Wednesday.

The cloud unit, which accounts for roughly one-fifth of Amazon’s total revenue and most of its operating profit, has benefited from growing demand for AI infrastructure and cloud services.

Amazon has recently deepened its ties with leading AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic, with agreements expected to commit the companies to more than $100 billion in spending on AWS services in the coming years.

The partnerships have helped ease investor concerns over slowing cloud growth and Amazon’s lack of a major consumer AI product comparable to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude or Google’s Gemini.

However, Amazon’s capital spending rose sharply to $44.2 billion in the first quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, as the company continued investing heavily in data centers and AI-related infrastructure.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said the company plans to spend around $200 billion this year, mostly on data centers, including facilities designed for AI services.

Overall revenue rose 17% year-on-year to $181.5 billion in the first quarter, above analysts’ expectations of $177.2 billion.