Amazon stock earnings for the second quarter of 2026 beat expectations across the board, and shares jumped as investors went through the Amazon earnings report line by line. Revenue landed at $200.6 billion, up 20% year over year, and AWS growth hit its fastest pace in 18 quarters, which is honestly the number everyone on the Amazon stock earnings call kept coming back to. At the time of writing, the Amazon stock price is still digesting just how strong AWS looked, and AMZN stock today is one of the more closely watched names on the market. Here’s a full look at what pushed shares higher, and honestly, what the Amazon stock earnings numbers say about the quarters still ahead.

Amazon Stock Earnings Boost Outlook As AWS And AI Accelerate

AWS Growth Drives The Amazon Stock Earnings Reaction

AWS revenue climbed 36.7% year over year to $42.2 billion, and that acceleration turned out to be the single biggest driver behind the Amazon stock earnings reaction on Wall Street this week. Operating income across the company rose 43% to $27.5 billion, and AWS operating margin expanded to 39%, up 650 basis points from a year earlier, which analysts had not really expected. North America revenue also rose 16% to $116.2 billion, and international sales climbed 15% to $42.2 billion on a currency neutral basis. Backlog for AWS reached $496 billion, and its annualized run rate now sits at $169 billion, a number that alone would rank among the bigger companies in the country right now.

In Amazon’s official earnings release, CEO Andy Jassy put it plainly:

AWS is booming, growing 36.7% year-over-year in Q2

That line pretty much summed up how much the cloud unit added to this Amazon earnings report, since AI and chips businesses each topped a $25 billion annual run rate on their own. Advertising revenue grew 26% to $19.8 billion, and grocery sales expanded into 2,300 U.S. cities, which gave the Amazon stock earnings story more than one growth engine this quarter and added even more weight to the Amazon earnings report overall.

What The Amazon Stock Earnings Call Revealed About AWS Spending

On the Amazon stock earnings call, executives leaned pretty hard into AWS’s long-term potential, and Jassy told analysts the business could be:

very possibly be a trillion-dollar annual revenue business for us in time

Amazon confirmed 2026 capital expenditures will hit $220 billion, up from an earlier $200 billion estimate, as memory chip costs climbed amid soaring AI infrastructure demand across the industry.
Amazon’s third quarter guidance also flagged higher costs tied to fuel and linehaul rates in its logistics network. Even with all that spending, Jassy cautioned during the same Amazon stock earnings call that Amazon still won’t:

have enough capacity to meet all the demand we have in 2026

He added that the same capacity crunch is likely to carry into 2027 as well, which is one reason the Amazon stock price reaction wasn’t pure celebration, since some caution mixed in too.

What Amazon Stock Price Watchers Should Expect Next

Third quarter guidance calls for net sales between $197 billion and $202 billion, which came in below what analysts had expected, partly because Prime Day shifted into the second quarter this year and threw off some of the usual comparisons. Analysts also expect foreign exchange to trim roughly 80 basis points off Q3 revenue growth.

Even so, the Amazon stock price jumped more than 10% in extended trading after the report, and the Amazon earnings report gave investors enough confidence in AWS to look past near term cost pressures, at least for now. AMZN stock today reflects a market betting that AWS growth, not short term guidance, will decide where Amazon stock earnings head next, and AMZN stock today remains one of the more closely tracked names on the market this week.