Amazon’s AWS backlog reaches $496B as cloud giant eyes trillion-dollar revenue milestone

Amazon just dropped a number that makes most countries’ GDPs look quaint. AWS’s remaining performance obligations, the contracted revenue it hasn’t recognized yet, hit $496 billion as of June 30, 2026. That’s up $132 billion from the prior quarter alone. AWS added more backlog in a single quarter than its entire annual revenue run rate. The cloud division pulled in $42.2 billion in Q2 revenue, growing 37% year over year, its fastest pace in 18 quarters. The numbers behind the momentum AWS’s Q2 performance wasn’t just a revenue story. Operating income landed at $16.6 billion for the quarter. AWS entered 2026 with $244 billion in remaining performance obligations. Six months later, that figure has more than doubled to $496 billion. Amazon’s overall net sales for Q2 reached approximately $200.6 billion across all segments. CEO Andy Jassy used the earnings call to emphasize that the backlog represents secured contracts that provide clear line-of-sight into future revenue generation. The $220 billion bet on AI infrastructure Amazon raised its full-year 2026 capital expenditure guidance to $220 billion, a figure driven almost entirely by the need to build out AI infrastructure capacity. ...