Amazon guided to $200 billion in 2026 capital expenditures during its February 2026 earnings release, a more than 50% increase from the $131 billion spent in 2025, with the majority directed toward AWS data centers, custom AI chips, servers, and supporting infrastructure to meet surging demand for cloud and artificial intelligence services. This outlook, which exceeded analyst models by roughly $50 billion, reflects the hyperscaler's aggressive push to expand compute capacity amid competitive pressure from Microsoft, Google, and Meta, all of which issued similarly elevated AI-related spending plans. Investors have closely watched subsequent quarterly results for any signs of guidance revisions, actual spending pace, or free cash flow impacts, as the elevated outlay raises questions about return timelines in a rapidly evolving large language model and data center landscape.