Amazon released its Q3 earnings. The transcribed investor call contains 8,757 words. We observe that the words music, podcast, and streaming are not among them. Putting that curiosity aside, the company reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $201.9 billion and earnings of $1.89 a share, both slightly below Wall Street expectations. See the full earnings transcript HERE.
GPT gives us this financial snapshot:
• Net Sales: $201.9 billion, up 12% year-over-year, but narrowly missing analyst expectations of roughly $202.2 billion.
• Operating Income: Surged 61% to a record $28.1 billion (exceeding the high end of guidance).
• Operating Margin: Hit an all-time high of 13.9%.
• Earnings Per Share (EPS): Reported at $1.89, missing the consensus estimate of $1.96
A bit of exploration informs us (unsurprisingly) that North American sales far exceeded international sales and AWS (Amazon Web Services) by nearly threefold. But interestingly, AWS sales jolted upward 39%, while North American sales inched upward six percent.
Capital expenditures rocketed upward, led by AI and Web Services investment, as shown below.
Amazon Quarterly Capital Expenditures (Last 4 Quarters)
- Quarter Period Ending Capital Expenditures
- Q3 2026 September 30, 2026 $77.26 Billion
- Q2 2026 June 30, 2026 $54.21 Billion
- Q1 2026 March 31, 2026 $44.20 Billion
- Q4 2025 December 31, 2025 $39.52 Billion
