Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) shares opened at $259.30 on Monday, a touch below Friday's close, when the stock slipped 0.35% in the prior session. The price sits within a 52-week range of $196.00 to $287.20, and the company carries a market capitalization of roughly $2.80 trillion — a level that puts it among the most valuable public companies.

Beneath the quiet tape, however, sits a loud cloud story. Amazon Web Services posted its fastest growth in nearly five years in the third quarter, with revenue climbing more than 39% year over year to $46 billion. That lifts the segment's annual run rate to $184 billion, a figure that annualizes one quarter's revenue into a full-year equivalent.

Profit Growth Outpaces Sales

Earnings expanded even faster than revenue. AWS operating income rose 55% to more than $17 billion, meaning the cloud unit now generates roughly 60% of Amazon's total operating income. In other words, the cloud still carries the bottom line.

The order book looks full as well. AWS reported a contracted revenue backlog of $578 billion, a triple-digit gain from a year earlier. Backlog — revenue already committed under contract but not yet recognized — has become a closely watched gauge of future cloud demand.

Usage of Amazon Bedrock, the company's AI inference service, is also climbing fast. Fortune 500 customers are spending about seven times more than they did a year earlier, a marker of how quickly enterprises are adopting AI services.

Chief Executive Andy Jassy said AWS could become a trillion-dollar business within five to 10 years. Management expects the current growth pace to last through at least 2028.

Softer Companywide Results

The consolidated results told a less flattering story. Amazon earned $1.89 per share in the third quarter, missing the $1.97 estimate, while revenue came in at $201.94 billion against expectations of $202.22 billion. Total revenue was still up 12.1% from a year earlier.

Advertising grew 12% in the quarter, and management expects growth in the high teens next.

Spending Plans, Policy Risk and Wall Street Views

The bill for all this demand is large. Amazon raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to $220 billion from $200 billion, and Jassy said even that may not fully meet demand. The elevated spending is weighing on free cash flow for now, and the company says the pressure will persist until its new data centers start paying off. The stock fell in the session after earnings as investors focused on the spending plans. Free cash flow is a figure to watch as that new capacity comes online.

Policy could add another cost layer. After the midterm elections, rules that would make technology firms pay more of their data-center power and grid costs are drawing increased attention. How those rules land could influence the cost economics of the data centers now under construction.

Analysts remain upbeat overall. MarketBeat shows a "Moderate Buy" consensus with an average price target of $321.74. Of the analysts tracked, two rate the stock Strong Buy, 55 rate it Buy and three say Hold. Phillip Securities upgraded Amazon to "strong-buy" on November 2.

Insider Selling and Institutional Positioning

Insiders have been sellers. Over the last quarter, they sold 71,589 shares worth $18.5 million. That includes a sale by Douglas Herrington of 1,000 shares at $243.47 on November 2, executed under a pre-arranged plan — arrangements that let executives sell shares on a predetermined schedule. Insiders own 8.9% of the company, while institutions own 72.2% of the stock.

Among institutional moves, Madrona Financial Services raised its stake by 62.4% in the third quarter to 18,149 shares.

Separately, Amazon is testing text-based shopping through Alexa for select U.S. customers. The assistant can find products, build carts and complete purchases on users' behalf — extending Alexa beyond voice into written commands.