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Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $42.2 billion in sales in the second quarter of 2026, up 37% year over year. Amazon says that was AWS’s fastest growth in 18 quarters; CEO Andy Jassy gave the unrounded rate as 36.7%. Amazon attributes the acceleration to demand for both AI and core cloud services, but its results do not quantify how much growth AI caused.
How much did AWS grow in Q2 2026?
Amazon reported AWS sales of $42.2 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, a 37% increase from the same quarter a year earlier. Jassy stated the more precise year-over-year rate, 36.7%, in the company’s earnings release. The 37% headline is that figure rounded to a whole percent. Amazon called the result the fastest AWS growth in 18 quarters. Amazon’s July 30, 2026 earnings release
The quarter extends a sequence of accelerating reported growth: AWS grew 24% year over year in Q4 2025, 28% in Q1 2026, and 36.7% in Q2 2026. Amazon described each as its fastest growth in 13, 15, and 18 quarters, respectively. Q1 2026 earnings release · Q4 2025 earnings release
What do the AWS numbers measure?
Sales, annualized revenue run rate, and operating income describe different things. The $169 billion figure is AWS’s annualized revenue run rate, not sales earned during Q2 and not a forecast. Operating income is a profit measure for the quarter, rather than a revenue figure.
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| Measure | Q2 2026 figure | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| AWS sales | $42.2 billion; up 37% year over year | Quarterly segment sales reported by Amazon. |
| AWS annualized revenue run rate | $169 billion | A run-rate measure, not quarterly sales or a forecast. |
| AWS operating income | $16.6 billion | AWS’s operating income for the quarter. |
| Amazon total net sales | $200.6 billion; up 20% year over year | Sales across Amazon, not AWS alone. |
Amazon also said its AI business and chips business each exceeded annual revenue run rates of $25 billion and each grew at triple-digit year-over-year rates. Those are company-reported run rates, not quarterly sales, and Amazon did not provide a breakdown showing how much of AWS’s $42.2 billion in quarterly sales came from AI. Amazon’s Q2 2026 earnings release
Why does Amazon say AWS is growing so fast?
Amazon’s explanation is that AI demand and core cloud demand reinforce one another. Jassy said customers want AI inference close to their applications and data, and cited demand for compute, storage, vector databases, model building, inference, and agents. He also pointed to AWS offerings including SageMaker AI, Bedrock, and Bedrock AgentCore. This is management’s account of demand, not an independently measured allocation of AWS growth to AI. Amazon’s explanation of AWS AI and cloud demand
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Jassy described the quarter this way: “AWS is booming, growing 36.7% year-over-year in Q2—our fastest growth in 18 quarters—and our AI and Chips businesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion,” Amazon’s July 30, 2026 earnings release
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How much of AWS growth comes from AI?
The available company figures do not establish a specific share. Amazon reported the AI business’s annual revenue run rate as greater than $25 billion, but a run rate is not a quarterly sales breakdown and does not show how much of AWS’s year-over-year increase AI produced. Amazon’s description of AI and core cloud demand as mutually reinforcing is an explanation from management, not a quantified causal decomposition.
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Does the growth mean Amazon generated more profit and cash?
Revenue growth alone does not answer that. AWS reported $16.6 billion in operating income for Q2 2026. At the broader Amazon level, net income was $62.6 billion, but the quarter also included $53.4 billion in non-operating pre-tax other income, primarily from investments in Anthropic. That makes net income an especially poor stand-in for ordinary operating performance this quarter. Amazon’s Q2 2026 Form 10-Q
Amazon’s trailing-twelve-month free cash flow was negative $7.6 billion. The company said the decline was driven primarily by a $66.1 billion year-over-year increase in purchases of property and equipment, net of sale proceeds and incentives, primarily reflecting AI investment. This is a trailing-twelve-month measure, not cash flow for Q2 alone. Amazon’s Q2 2026 Form 10-Q
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- Alexa is happy to help – Ask Alexa for weather updates and to set hands-free timers, get answers to your questions and even hear jokes. Need a few extra minutes in the morning? Just tap your Echo Dot to snooze your alarm.
- Keep your home comfortable – Control compatible smart home devices with your voice and routines triggered by built-in motion or indoor temperature sensors. Create routines to automatically turn on lights when you walk into a room, or start a fan if the inside temperature goes above your comfort zone.
- Do more with device pairing – Fill your home with music using compatible Echo devices in different rooms, or create a home theatre system with Fire TV.
- Say goodbye to drop-offs and buffering - With eero Built-in, Echo Dot doubles as a mesh wifi extender, adding up to 1,000 sq. ft. of wifi coverage to your existing eero network.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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