Amazon reported Oct. 29 that third-quarter sales rose 12% to $201.9 billion as Amazon Web Services growth accelerated, highlighting a widening gap between its cloud business and retail segments ahead of the holiday quarter.
Net income was $20.7 billion, or $1.89 a diluted share, down from $21.2 billion, or $1.95, a year earlier. AP reported that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $1.97 a share on sales of $202.2 billion.
Cloud growth outpaces retail segments
In its company earnings release distributed through Business Wire, Amazon said AWS sales reached $46 billion, up 39.3%. North America sales increased 6%, while international sales rose 5%.
Companywide operating income increased to $28.1 billion from $17.4 billion. Amazon attributed the decline in net income primarily to investment gains recorded in the year-earlier quarter, rather than a decline in operating income.
Holiday outlook remains a forecast
Amazon projected fourth-quarter sales of $240 billion to $247 billion and operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion. It maintained its forecast for approximately $220 billion in cash capital expenditures during 2026. Those ranges describe management expectations, not completed holiday sales.
The results cover the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026. They give cloud customers and retail partners separate demand indicators to assess. AWS growth measures the supplier’s sales; it does not establish that an individual customer’s AI deployment has delivered a return.