Amazon spent $75.9 billion on property and equipment in three months. It brought in $42.4 billion from operations.
AWS is growing fast. Amazon’s spending is growing faster than its operating cash is coming in. How much of that spending will eventually turn into cash?
Amazon’s Spending Is Outrunning Operating Cash
One comparison puts last quarter’s spending on property and equipment at 179% of operating cash for Amazon. The figures were 121% for Google, 106% for Meta, and 68% for Microsoft.
AWS gives Amazon a strong growth story alongside that spending. The same comparison reports 39% AWS growth, a 38.7% margin, and $578 billion of backlog. Another commentator puts AWS revenue over the last 12 months at $161 billion, while putting Amazon’s trailing free cash flow at negative $42 billion.
There is another reason to look carefully at the growth. Nvidia invests in AI companies and sells them chips. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon invest across the same ecosystem while selling infrastructure and services. One commentator warns that money moving through this network can make growth look stronger than the returns eventually justify.
Another commentator favors Google and Meta because their existing businesses generate billions in cash flow. Even in that view, whether their AI spending earns attractive returns remains a question.
Anthropic’s Operations Improved as Commitments Grew
Anthropic reported an $80.7 billion net loss for the first six months of the year. Its filing attributes more than $72 billion of that loss to changes in the value of financing deals, mostly with Google and Amazon.
An account of the filing puts the operating loss at just under $700 million, down from $2 billion in the same period last year. Anthropic reported an operating profit in the second quarter and almost $4 billion of positive operating cash flow. Computing spending fell from 251% of sales early last year to 48% in the second quarter.
The growth figures also changed. The public filing ends on June 30. According to the account, figures shared privately with investors put sequential revenue growth at around 45% in the third quarter, after 147% in the second. That is still growth, but at a much lower reported rate.
Then come the future computing bills. The same account says Anthropic entered agreements with minimum obligations of $417 billion since the end of 2025. Including other deals, it puts future commitments above $800 billion.
Anthropic distributes its models through Amazon and Google, which its filing says also compete with it. Anthropic is pursuing what it calls “Anthropic Direct.” The filing also warns about potentially dangerous model behavior.
An account of its governance says the founders hold 50.1% of the voting power, while a long-term benefit trust nominates four of seven directors. Amazon and Google have shares without votes. The operating results have improved, but the computing commitments are enormous.
AI Spending Pressure Reaches Markets and Chips
One commentator argues that an earlier AI market correction would be healthier than continued spending without proven returns. He says OpenAI raised less than half of a 30 billion target in its latest round and raises the possibility of model price competition. He cannot predict when a correction might happen.
A bearish market commentator says the Nasdaq 100 lost $4 trillion in 25 days, while the S&P 500 Excluding AI reached a record high. The same account says about 58% of the S&P 500 was at least 20% below its highs, and argues that concern about returns on AI spending is driving the selling.
Meta faces a specific concern. S&P Global revised its outlook to negative, citing uncertainty around spending on property and equipment and free operating cash flow. A Wedbush model projects nearly $1.2 trillion of cumulative spending on property and equipment and $171 billion of annual depreciation by 2030. Those are projections. A separate market post says Meta was below both its 50dma and 200dma.
The spending story reaches chips, too. One commentator cites a projection that the server CPU market could reach $220 billion by 2030, with AMD taking more than 50%. The post puts that at $110 billion in annual CPU revenue, compared with approximately $41 billion of AMD’s total revenue over the last 12 months. The commentator expects AI agents to drive CPU demand.
Memory supply is tight now. According to Korean media cited by another commentator, SK Hynix says customers want more than double what it can deliver. Some customers are asking for fewer HBM stacks per chip. The same account says Samsung is seeking more than three times as much for next-generation HBM4 memory next year, with a reported offer in the mid to high $4 range per gigabit for 2027.
Google unveiled its TPU in May 2016 after running it in its data centers for over a year. One writer argues that owning the chip gives a cloud provider control over its margin. That writer also questions a Google Cloud and Azure revenue comparison because of how enterprise revenue is counted.
One investor expects a longer Intel turnaround, pointing to limited manufacturing capacity and foundry losses. They cite management’s expectation that meaningful supply improvements will wait until the second half of 2027, and say Intel does not expect positive free cash flow next year.
Savings, Advertising, Brazil and the Fed
India had 28.62 crore mutual fund folios in September 2026, up from 10.55 crore in July 2021. A report says 27 lakh were added in September alone and describes households moving from gold and fixed deposits toward ownership of Indian businesses.
In the US, Fidelity reported a 10.5% rise in the average 401(k) balance from March through June. Participants in their 30s averaged $75,200; those in their 40s averaged $156,800. Including employer contributions, holders saved an average 14.4% of pay.
An advertising comparison drew an objection. One commentator says it used Alphabet’s consolidated advertising revenue. Another says separating Google’s businesses while combining all of Meta makes the comparison misleading.
One commentator alleges US interference after Lula’s re-election in Brazil, including Meta’s treatment of political accounts and US assistance to the losing candidate after he left the country. The commentator cites a New York Times report saying extended voting hours affected 0.03% of the vote. According to the account, Brazilian electoral authorities said the change did not affect the result.
Reuters listed a NEXT Newsmaker featuring Fed Governor Christopher Waller. No remarks were included.