Amazon is the latest technology giant to increase its spending on data centers for the artificial intelligence boom, but it hasn’t forgotten about its warehouses and delivery sites.
Seattle-based Amazon said it now expects capital expenditures to total $125 billion for the full year — higher than its previous estimate of $100 million — and "we expect that amount will increase in 2026," Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said during the firm's earnings call on Thursday.
Executives said the spending is needed to expand fast deliveries of perishable groceries and other items across the U.S., and increase the power capacity of its data centers for AI applications on its Amazon Web Services cloud computing network.
That includes more than $4 billion in new investments to expand Amazon's fulfillment centers, where Amazon has started rolling out three-hour delivery in select U.S. cities, and to push deeper into rural areas of the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said.
"These are small towns where people want fast delivery but where other companies have been backing out and reducing service," Jassy said. "In contrast, we've already increased the number of rural communities with access to our same-day and next-day delivery by 60%."
Amazon is also focusing on increasing its data center footprint to meet demand for its Amazon Web Services, which saw revenue increase 20% year over year in the third quarter to $33 billion, its strongest growth rate in almost three years.
Jassy also said Amazon has added more than 3.8 gigawatts to its data center capacity over the past year with another gigawatt slated to go online by the end of the year, more than any other cloud provider. To give some perspective, 1 gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes at the same time.
“We're now double the power capacity that AWS was in 2022, and we're on track to double again by 2027,” Jassy said. “We continue to see strong momentum and growth across Amazon as AI drives meaningful improvements in every corner of our business.”
Data center boom
It's not the only technology giant increasing its spending on networks for artificial intelligence. Meta, Microsoft and Google spent a record $80 billion last quarter on data centers and other networks for artificial intelligence.
Amazon spent $79.1 billion on technology and infrastructure in the first nine months of 2025, from about $65 billion during the similar period last year. The firm spent $120.1 billion to purchase properties and equipment during the nine months, up from $69.8 billion in the earlier period.
Much of the increased spending was on land and equipment for data centers.
Jassy said Amazon "continues to be very aggressive" investing in AI data center capacity.
"As fast as we're adding capacity right now, we're monetizing it," he said. "It's still quite early, and represents an unusual opportunity for customers in AWS."
Amazon announced this week that one of its largest AI data center clusters, the 1,200-acre Project Rainier, in New Carlisle, Indiana, was now fully operational.