Amazon's cloud acceleration comes with a $42.4 billion cash drain

AWS sales rose 39.3% to $46 billion in the third quarter, according to the Associated Press. Amazon still gave a cautious holiday-quarter sales outlook, and its shares fell in after-hours trading as investors focused on the cost of the expansion.

Chief executive Andy Jassy said the company still expects $220 billion of capital spending this year, much of it for AI data centers, and is installing an AI chip about every 14 seconds. Those figures are management statements and forecasts rather than guaranteed outcomes.