Amazon announced plans to spend $200bn on artificial intelligence and robotics in 2026. The tech giant made the announcement one day after Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos cut about a third of the newspaper’s employees. According to The Guardian, the company also reported $213bn in revenue for the fourth quarter.
Record Spending on AI Infrastructure
Amazon will raise capital spending to $200bn this year from $125bn. CEO Andy Jassy said the company sees strong demand for AI, chips, robotics, and satellites. Wall Street analysts expected spending to reach about $147bn. The new figure far exceeds those estimates.
Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google, and Meta plan to spend more than $630bn combined this year. The investment shows cloud-computing giants will not slow their AI spending. Revenue at Amazon rose 14% to $213.4bn in the fourth quarter. The company reported net income of $21.2bn for the three months ending December 31.
Cloud Business Shows Strong Growth
Amazon Web Services grew 24% to $35.6bn in revenue. This marks the fastest growth in 13 quarters for the cloud-computing unit. Advertising revenue rose 22%. Analysts had expected $1.97 per share on sales of $211.4bn. Amazon’s results came in slightly below those estimates.
Washington Post Layoffs and Stock Impact
Bezos serves as executive chair of Amazon’s board. He founded the company in 1994 and bought the Post for $250m in 2013. Amazon stock makes up most of his $235bn net worth. Forbes estimated his wealth dropped $9bn after the earnings report. Shares fell close to 9% in after-hours trading.
Former Post executive editor Marty Baron won 11 Pulitzer prizes at the newspaper. He told The Guardian the news organization’s aspirations are now smaller. Baron said he worries the cuts might create a death spiral with fewer subscribers.
