Amazon Warns AI Capacity Limits, Stock Retreats
GuruFocus ·
Amazon NASDAQ:AMZN slid after its earnings call because Andy Jassy was blunt: AI demand is real, but the company can't just snap its fingers and supply enough capacity. Electricity and chip shortages are the choke points, and he said it will take several quarters to work through it, even if things slowly improve each period.
He pushed back on the idea Amazon is losing the AI race and leaned into the spend$31.4Billion of AI-heavy capex in Q2 is the kind of run rate the back half is built on, with more going into chips, data centers and power. Tariffs haven't bitten yet in H1, he said, but who ends up paying higher U.S. rates later is still unclear.
That caution rubbed some investors the wrong way. Lucas Ma of Envision Research warned the heavy investment and mounting competition from GOOG NASDAQ:GOOG and META NASDAQ:META could squeeze free cash flow, making capital allocation riskier if the AI arms race keeps accelerating.
Amazon is chasing a big AI opportunity while bumping up against real limits, so growth hinges on execution and capital discipline. The next signs to watch are whether capacity actually ramps as promised and whether margin or cash flow pressure shows up once tariffs shift.
Source:
GuruFocus