Amazon's 2Q Profit, Sales Expected to Grow as Investors Eye AI Spending -- Earnings Preview

By Kelly Cloonan

Amazon.com is scheduled to report its second-quarter results after market closes on Thursday. Here is what you need to know.

NET INCOME: The e-commerce and tech company is expected to post a profit of $19.97 billion, or $1.82 a share, compared with $18.16 billion, or $1.68 a share, the year before, according to FactSet.

REVENUE: The company is expected to report $197.04 billion in sales, compared with $167.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to FactSet.

The stock has fallen 13% in the past three months and recently traded around $227.44.

WHAT TO WATCH:

--Investors will be zeroing in on Amazon's capital expenditures amid worries about the massive amounts of cash that big tech companies are spending on artificial intelligence. Amazon already saw its cash flow turn negative in the first quarter, which analysts see continuing this quarter. The company has guided for capital expenditures of around $200 billion this year, but investors seem increasingly focused on whether it may raise that forecast after Alphabet's increased capex, Deutsche Bank analysts said.

--Amazon moved its U.S. Prime Day sale event earlier this year, with the promotions kicking off in June rather than July. The timing shift could lead Amazon's North America retail sales growth to slow in the third quarter before re-accelerating in the fourth quarter, Mizuho analysts said.

--Wall Street will also be watching for commentary around Amazon Web Services. Deutsche Bank analysts expect the unit's growth to get a boost in the second quarter and further accelerate in the third quarter given signs of strength around new commitments, consumption growth, inference demand and AI capacity deployments, they said. "Importantly, our checks suggest AWS demand remains a meaningful source of upside," the analysts said.

Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 29, 2026 12:21 ET (16:21 GMT)