Amazon plans to double its capex spend in 2026, investing $200 billion, most of which will be funnelled into data centers for its AWS cloud division.

The firm revealed the news as it reported its financial results for Q4 2025, which saw operating income across Amazon grow to $25 billion, up from $21 billion a year ago. For AWS, Q4 operating income was up to $12.5 billion, from $10.6 billion in Q4 2024.

Demand for cloud and AI services continues to be strong, the company said, and this has led to it planning for an increased capex spend of $200 billion. A year ago, it forecast it would spend $100 billion in 2025.

Though the capex figure covers all Amazon activities, including ecommerce and related fulfillment services, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told investors on the company’s earnings call that AWS investments were the main focus.

“If you look at the capital we’re spending and intend to spend this year, it’s predominantly in AWS,” Jassy said. “Some of it is for our core workloads, which are non-AI workloads, because they’re growing at a faster rate than we anticipated. But most of it is in AI, and we just have a lot of growth and a lot of demand.”

Jassy defended the heavy spending plans, which have not been well received by the financial markets. Amazon’s share price had fallen as much as 11 percent when the markets closed on Thursday, after the results were announced.

Describing AI as a “very unusual opportunity,” he said: “We have a fair bit of experience in AWS of forecasting demand signals, and doing it in such a way that we don’t have a lot of wasted capacity, and that we also have enough capacity to serve the demand that’s there.

“I think we’ve also proven with AWS over the years, in how we build data centers and how we run them, and how we invent in there [with] our chips and our hardware, our networking gear, and how we’ve invented in power, that this isn’t some sort of quixotic top-line grab.”

Jassy added: “We have confidence that these investments will yield strong returns on invested capital. We’ve done that with our core AWS business, and I think that will very much be true here as well.”

Amazon is involved in major data center projects across the US and beyond. Recently announced schemes include a $3 billion campus in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with construction due to start this year. While AWS does not disclose the number of data centers it operates, a leaked report last year revealed the hyperscaler runs more than 900 facilities.

The company’s dipping share price reflects wider investor caution about the level of spending on AI infrastructure by some of tech’s biggest names. In January, Microsoft saw the value of its stock fall after its financial results revealed higher-than-expected capex investment.

Overall, 2025 saw Amazon’s income grow to $80 billion, up from $68.6 billion. AWS annual income was $45.6 billion, compared to 2024’s $39.8 billion.