Data-Center Deal or Disguise?

Amazon's cash-flow statement has a line called purchases of property and equipment. In 2019 it stood at about $17 billion. It passed $60 billion in 2021, fell to about $53 billion in 2023, then rose to $83 billion in 2024 and about $132 billion in 2025. The annual report filed on 6 February 2026 gives a second figure for 2025: "cash capital expenditures" of $128.3 billion, the same line less about $3.5 billion of sale proceeds and incentives; the figures here are the gross line. In the results release of 5 February 2026 Andy Jassy, the chief executive, is quoted: "we expect to invest about $200 billion in capital expenditures across Amazon in 2026".

In October 2025 and January 2026 Amazon announced two rounds of cuts. On 28 October a message to employees from Beth Galetti, Amazon's senior vice president of people experience and technology, announced "an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles". On 28 January a second said the reductions "will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon". Neither round was announced in a filing: Amazon has filed no Form 8-K under item 2.05, the item for exit costs; the cost appears instead in the reports below. The messages count roles, and the January one said Amazon was "offering most US-based employees 90 days to look for a new role internally".

Amazon's own account comes in three parts, in date order. In a message to employees of 17 June 2025, Andy Jassy wrote that AI would mean "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs". Over "the next few years" he expected it to "reduce our total corporate workforce", and found it "hard to know exactly where this nets out over time". The October message spoke first of the organisation, "further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources", then named AI: "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet".

The next day Amazon filed its quarterly report. For the three and nine months to 30 September 2025 it says: "we recorded approximately $1.8 billion and $2.0 billion of estimated severance costs primarily related to planned role eliminations". The results release of 5 February 2026 records a further "$730 million in estimated severance costs" in the fourth quarter, and the annual report filed the next day puts the year at $2.7 billion. Divided by the $131.8 billion of property and equipment bought in the same year, the severance is about 2 per cent of the spending: two filed figures set against each other, and that is all the arithmetic says. No filing read says which round the severance belongs to; the two quarterly reports of 2026 do not contain the word; none states a saving.

Amazon also publishes its count of all employees, full-time and part-time, in its quarterly results releases: 1,578,000 at the end of September 2025; 1,576,000 in December; 1,575,000 in March 2026; 1,595,000 in June 2026. Taking one published count from another, the total fell by 3,000 across the two quarters of the announcements and stood 17,000 higher in June than in September. The count cannot show the cuts either way. It covers every employee, and no filing read gives a count of corporate staff. No Amazon document read says whether staff in the 90 days are counted. And the January message said "we'll also continue hiring and investing in strategic areas".

What the money buys, Amazon says in words. The annual report: capital expenditures "primarily reflect investments in technology infrastructure (the majority of which is to support AWS business growth)" and in its fulfilment network. The results release of 30 July 2026: a $66.1 billion year-on-year rise in trailing-twelve-month spending "primarily reflects investments in artificial intelligence". Andy Jassy's letter to shareholders of 9 April 2026: "land, power, buildings, chips, servers, and networking gear", and "We're not investing approximately $200 billion in capex in 2026 on a hunch." The letter does not mention the job cuts. None gives a split in dollars. The second chart draws spending as a share of revenue, each year's filed spending divided by its filed revenue: 6 per cent in 2019, 13 in 2021, about 9 in 2023, 13 again in 2024, about 18 in 2025.

Amazon also files what it has promised to pay. Its total contractual commitments were $333 billion at the end of 2024 and $650 billion on 30 June 2026: the later figure is nearly twice the earlier one. That total is not one agreement and not a data-centre figure. Of the $650 billion, $220 billion is long-term debt and its interest. Another $137 billion is leases not yet begun, against about $62 billion at the end of 2024, more than twice as much; the notes name no landlord. And $130 billion is purchase obligations, which a footnote says cover energy, digital media content, property and equipment, and software. No filing read says how much of any row is for data centres.

Customers' commitments not yet counted as revenue, mainly to AWS, were $244 billion at the end of 2025 and $496 billion in June 2026, about twice as much six months on. The same note names two expansions announced in the half year: one of OpenAI's "existing $38.0 billion multi-year commitment" by $100 billion over eight years, and one of Anthropic's "by more than $100.0 billion over 10.0 years". Both include "contractual obligations related to the performance of AWS chips". No filing read links the cuts to any of this.

Two things to watch. Whether spending for 2026 reaches "about $200 billion": the first half came to about $98 billion gross, $96.3 billion by Amazon's own measure, about half of the figure. And whether a filing ever ties a cost, or a saving, to either round.