Amazon boosts capex to more than $118 billion as AI cloud arms race heats up

Capital Expenditure (Capex) Targets - Amazon's capex spending target is upped to $314 billion for the current quarter, representing a reasonably representative quarterly capital investment rate for the back half of the year [1] - Factoring in Q1 spend of $24 billion, Amazon's annualized capex is more than $118 billion [2] - Alphabet raised its annual capex target to $85 billion [2] - Microsoft is projected to spend $30 billion this quarter alone, putting it on track to hit $120 billion in its new fiscal year [2] Industry Trends - The increased capex spending underscores an unprecedented AI cloud arms race among hyperscalers [2] - Most of Amazon's investment is aimed at expanding AI infrastructure for AWS [2]