Amazon.com, Inc. reported third-quarter net sales of $201.9 billion, up 12% from $180.2 billion a year earlier. Operating income rose to $28.1 billion from $17.4 billion, and the company said its operating margin of 13.9% was the highest in its history.
The results cover the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, and were released Oct. 29 in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Amazon said sales would have grown about 4 percentage points faster without a change in the timing of Prime Day. The event fell in the second quarter this year for most large countries, but occurred entirely in the third quarter in 2025.
Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing unit, posted sales of $46.0 billion, up 39%. Amazon said that was its fastest growth in nearly five years and equal to a $184 billion annualized revenue run rate. AWS operating income was $17.8 billion, compared with $11.4 billion a year earlier.
North America segment sales rose 6% to $112.9 billion, and operating income was $8.7 billion, up from $4.8 billion. International segment sales rose 5% to $43.1 billion, or 8% excluding currency changes. International operating income was $1.6 billion, compared with $1.2 billion. Advertising services sales were about $19.6 billion, up 11%.
Net income fell to $20.7 billion, or $1.89 per diluted share, from $21.2 billion, or $1.95 per share. Amazon said the drop came mainly from $9.5 billion in pre-tax gains in the third quarter of 2025 tied to its investments in Anthropic.
Spending on artificial intelligence weighed on cash flow. Free cash flow for the 12 months ended Sept. 30 was an outflow of $42.4 billion, compared with an inflow of $14.8 billion a year earlier. Amazon said the change was driven mainly by a $94.8 billion year-over-year increase in net purchases of property and equipment, which it said largely reflects AI investments. Operating cash flow rose 29% to $168.3 billion over the same period.
The balance sheet shows long-term debt of about $173.1 billion at Sept. 30, up from about $65.6 billion at Dec. 31, 2025. The cash flow statement shows about $48.1 billion in long-term debt proceeds during the third quarter.
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s president and CEO, said the AWS investment “is working.” He said the company projects AWS revenue growth of more than 40% in both 2027 and 2028. He also said Amazon “may have two” businesses with $1 trillion in revenue in the next five to 10 years.
For the fourth quarter, Amazon expects net sales of $240.0 billion to $247.0 billion, or growth of 12% to 16% from a year earlier. It expects operating income of $28.5 billion to $33.5 billion, compared with $25.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. The company said it expects advertising revenue to grow in the high teens in that quarter. It also said it still expects about $220 billion in cash capital expenditures for 2026.
Amazon said it plans to hire more than 300,000 seasonal, part-time and full-time workers in the United States this holiday season. The company scheduled a conference call for 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 29.