--- title: "AI's high-stakes gamble faces a testing moment! Key highlights of Amazon's Q2 earnings report: AWS becomes the biggest variable, cash flow sways market sentiment" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/293888362.md" description: "Amazon will announce its Q2 financial report after the US stock market closes on July 30, with market focus on AWS growth rate, retail profit margins, and the impact of AI spending. Analysts expect revenue of $196.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%; AWS growth is expected to exceed 30%. The advancement of Prime Day to June will affect quarterly performance. If free cash flow is negative, it may trigger pessimistic sentiment; conversely, a positive result would reinforce optimistic expectations" datetime: "2026-07-27T06:31:04.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/293888362.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293888362.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/293888362.md) --- # AI's high-stakes gamble faces a testing moment! Key highlights of Amazon's Q2 earnings report: AWS becomes the biggest variable, cash flow sways market sentiment According to Zhitong Finance APP, Amazon (AMZN.US) will announce its second-quarter financial report after the U.S. stock market closes on July 30 (Thursday). Investors are focusing on three core signals: whether the cloud computing service business AWS is accelerating growth, whether retail profit margins remain stable, and whether the substantial spending in artificial intelligence (AI) related fields is expected to further drive future growth. Analysts generally expect Amazon's Q2 revenue to reach $196.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%, slightly lower than the median of the company's previous guidance range of $194 billion to $199 billion, but still expected to achieve the fastest growth in five years; operating profit is expected to exceed $23 billion, with earnings per share projected at $1.81, up from $1.64 in the previous quarter and $1.32 in the same period last year. The revenue growth rate of the highly anticipated AWS cloud business is expected to exceed 30% for the first time since 2022, with AI-related cloud services remaining a major growth driver. AWS is seen as the biggest variable in this financial report. If AWS performs strongly and management is confident about capacity expansion and corporate demand, this report may further consolidate the market's optimistic expectations for Amazon's long-term profitability. However, if the company reports negative free cash flow for the second quarter, it may trigger pessimism. One of Amazon's most important annual promotional events, Prime Day, has been temporarily moved from the traditional July to June 23-26 in 2026, with holidays and sporting events being factors in this date adjustment. This move will also impact second-quarter North American retail revenue and third-quarter performance guidance. The main topics of this Amazon earnings call will include: updates on 2026 capital expenditure guidance, expected return on investment from substantial AI investments, operating profit margin outlook, the latest progress on Trainium and chip capacity, and an in-depth analysis of Prime Day trends. **Wall Street analysts bullish on Amazon ahead of earnings, cloud business expected to exceed growth expectations** Ahead of Amazon's earnings report, several analysts believe that AWS business is likely to accelerate growth. Jefferies analyst Brent Thill believes that Amazon's Q2 AWS growth rate will accelerate from 28% in Q1 to 32%, and the company's operating profit margin will reach 12%. Wedbush analyst Ygal Arounian is focused on capital expenditure trajectory and free cash flow. "We expect that as Amazon expands Trainium capacity and the Amazon Leo satellite network, the company will continue to make significant investments," he stated. Wedbush expects Amazon's capital expenditure guidance for 2026 to be raised to over $200 billion, reaching $266 billion in 2027. Arounian added, "We are focused on the updated backlog situation, AI annualized revenue, and more details on the external sales timing of Trainium." Bank of America believes that Amazon's strong performance is enough to convince investors that it is a major beneficiary in the AI field and may signal that retail spending trends will remain robust. The bank reiterated its "buy" rating on Amazon with a target price of $310 Bank of America expects Amazon's second-quarter revenue to be $198.8 billion and operating profit to be $24.1 billion, both exceeding market expectations. The bank also raised its revenue growth forecast for AWS in the second quarter from the previous 31% to 33%, an increase of 5 percentage points compared to the first quarter. Bank of America pointed out that the surge in computing power demand from AI model vendors is the core driver of accelerated growth in Amazon's cloud business, particularly the demand from Anthropic and the Bedrock service based on OpenAI technology. Benefiting from high resource utilization and pricing strategies, AWS's profit margin is expected to increase year-on-year to 34%, but will see a slight decline quarter-on-quarter due to rising equity incentive costs. According to Tipranks data, overall, Wall Street analysts give Amazon a "Strong Buy" rating, with an average target price of $318.98, which is 37% higher than the latest closing price. ![image.png](https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://img.zhitongcaijing.com/image/20260727/1785132285775521.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg) So far this year, Amazon's stock price has only increased by less than 1%, significantly underperforming the market ### Related Stocks - [AMZN.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZN.US.md) - [AMZZ.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZZ.US.md) - [AMZD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZD.US.md) - [AMZW.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZW.US.md) - [AMZU.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZU.US.md) - [AMZO.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZO.US.md) - [AMZY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZY.US.md) - [AZYY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AZYY.US.md) - [AMZP.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMZP.US.md) - [MAGX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MAGX.US.md) - [JEF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JEF.US.md) - [BAC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC.US.md) - [BAC-Q.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-Q.US.md) - [BML-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-L.US.md) - [BAC-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-L.US.md) - [BAC-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-K.US.md) - [BML-H.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-H.US.md) - [BAC-N.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-N.US.md) - [BAC-E.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-E.US.md) - [MER-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MER-K.US.md) - [BAC-O.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-O.US.md) - [BML-G.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-G.US.md) - [BAC-M.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-M.US.md) - [BAC-B.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-B.US.md) - [BML-J.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-J.US.md) - [BAC-S.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-S.US.md) - [BAC-P.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-P.US.md) - [8648.JP](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/8648.JP.md) ## Related News & Research - [Amazon Web Services Funds Myseum.AI’s Privacy-First AI Media Album Creation Agent for the Picture Party Social Media Platform | MYSE Stock News](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293471659.md) - [Prediction: CEO Andy Jassy will raise Amazon's full-year 2026 capex guide on July 30](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293883787.md) - [Amazon cracks down on use of AI images by sellers after New York law](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293681872.md) - [Amazon Stock Trades Below Its 50-Day Average With Earnings Just a Week Away](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293624943.md) - [Le PMI italiane su Amazon generano oltre 4 miliardi di euro di vendite nel 2025: a trainare le performance è il Sud Italia](https://longbridge.com/en/news/293442210.md)