> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.sotkn.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Amazon says AWS is sold out into 2028 despite $220B of capex - URL: https://www.sotkn.com/wire/amazon-aws-sold-out-into-2028-220b-capex-wire/ - Published: 2026-10-24T12:02:59.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T12:02:59.000Z - Description: Andy Jassy says AWS is sold out for 2026, largely for 2027 and partly for 2028. The $496 billion backlog is almost three years of revenue, and power and memory set the pace. - Author: Sean - Tags: #desk-wire `WIRE` · `HYPERSCALERS` · `AWS` · Data as at 24 Oct 2026 Amazon has told the market it cannot build cloud capacity fast enough to sell it. On **23 October 2026**, chief executive Andy Jassy said on the a16z Show that Amazon Web Services is sold out for 2026, "largely sold out" for 2027, and that "a good chunk of 28 is sold out". That is with about **$220 billion** of capital spending planned this year, which he said still leaves "a meaningful amount of demand on the table". The limit he named was not demand or money. It was data center space, power and memory. On the [hyperscalers layer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/hyperscalers/), the biggest cloud is now rationing, and the bottleneck sits below it. ## What happened 23 October 2026 · a16z Show, with Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg **2026 sold out, 2027 largely sold out, a good chunk of 2028 gone** Jassy said AWS always holds some capacity back for on-demand use and for Bedrock and EC2, but "all the big chunks" of 2027 are sold The spend **About $220 billion this year, and "we could spend a lot more"** Amazon raised its 2026 cash capex plan from about $200 billion to about $220 billion in July, blaming the higher cost of memory. Jassy said more would not be "a bad use of capital" The limit **"Only so much data center and power", "only so much memory"** He does not expect the shortage to end in 2027, and said AWS must choose how much memory goes to HBM for AI chips and how much to ordinary DRAM for the rest of the cloud The customers **"We're not going to squeeze our customers"** Asked whether AWS would push long-standing customers aside for AI labs willing to pay almost anything, Jassy said no. Third-quarter results are due on 29 October --- ## Why cash cares The podcast line matches what Amazon has been filing. At the end of June, AWS had a contract backlog of **$496 billion**, up from **$364 billion** three months earlier, and the earlier figure did not yet include a new Anthropic deal worth more than $100 billion. AWS sales were **$42.2 billion** in the second quarter, up 37%, a run rate of **$169 billion** a year. So the backlog equals almost **three years** of AWS revenue at today's pace. Customers have signed for capacity that does not exist yet. That is why spending keeps rising. Amazon's cash capex was **$43.2 billion** in the first quarter and **$53.1 billion** in the second, against $31.4 billion a year earlier. Free cash flow over the twelve months to June was an outflow of **$7.6 billion**, against an inflow of $18.2 billion a year before. At $220 billion a year, Amazon is spending about $600 million a day. The cash leaves first and the revenue comes later. In July Jassy said data center money is spent about two years before servers go in. A sold-out sign does not make Amazon more money this quarter. It means the backlog turns into revenue only as fast as halls get power and racks get memory. We saw the same gap on 22 October, when [AWS was reported to be taking about $3 billion a month of Nvidia racks it could not yet power](https://www.sotkn.com/wire/amazon-nvidia-gb300-racks-3b-a-month-waiting-for-power-wire/). ![Bar chart comparing AWS contract backlog of $364 billion at end-March 2026 and $496 billion at end-June 2026 with the AWS revenue run rate of $169 billion and Amazon's 2026 cash capex plan of about $220 billion, with notes that 2026 is sold out, 2027 largely sold out and a good chunk of 2028 sold](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cd/10/cd10e222-131f-4ba4-b4a9-ca4214e8c12d/content/images/2026/10/aws-backlog-vs-run-rate-sold-out-2028-print.png) **Figure: AWS has signed almost three years of revenue it has not yet built the capacity to deliver.** Backlog, run rate and capex from Amazon's first- and second-quarter 2026 results; sold-out comments from the a16z Show on 23 October 2026. ## The second-order read **Who gets paid.** Whoever owns the inputs Jassy named. Memory makers first: SK hynix, Samsung and Micron sell into a buyer that is choosing between HBM and ordinary DRAM because it cannot get enough of both, and memory costs already added about $20 billion to Amazon's plan this year. Then the owners of energised land: utilities, data center landlords and developers with power on a date. Neoclouds can pick up some of the overflow when AWS cannot serve a buyer quickly, see [who the neoclouds are](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/who-are-the-neoclouds/). **Who pays.** Amazon shareholders, through negative free cash flow that management has said will stay under pressure in the near term. Also any buyer who arrives late. If the big blocks of 2027 are gone, new projects get smaller slices, on-demand rates, or a wait. **Who carries the risk.** Amazon, on the quality of the backlog. Some of the largest new commitments come from AI labs that are themselves still raising money. The Anthropic deal alone is worth more than $100 billion, Anthropic and OpenAI have both signed multi-year, multi-gigawatt commitments for Amazon's Trainium chips, and Amazon has invested in both labs. If a lab slows its spending, Amazon is left with halls built for contracts that shrink. The buildings and the chips depreciate on Amazon's books either way, see [capex versus depreciation](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/capex-vs-depreciation/). **Stuck step.** Energised data center floor and memory supply. Demand is signed and the cash is committed. What sets the pace is how many megawatts reach finished halls and how many memory wafers AWS can buy. More on how the big clouds buy electricity in [how hyperscalers buy power](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/hyperscalers/how-do-hyperscalers-buy-power/). ## Two cautions This was a podcast answer, not a filing. Jassy did not say how much of 2028 is sold, or whether "sold out" means signed contracts or reserved plans, and no new backlog number was given. Backlog is not cash. Multi-year cloud contracts can be weighted toward later years, and the biggest ones depend on a few customers. The 29 October results will show whether the backlog kept rising in the third quarter. ## What would change the view - A third-quarter backlog that stops rising, which would say the sold-out line describes old contracts rather than new demand. - A capex number for 2027 well above 2026, which would show Amazon chooses to build through the shortage rather than ration. - A slowdown in AI lab funding, which would test how much of the backlog is firm. ## What to watch - **Amazon third-quarter results on 29 October**, for backlog, capex, the 2027 outlook and any comment on power and memory. - **Microsoft results on 28 October**, for whether Azure reports the same capacity limits. - **Memory contract prices into 2027**, since Amazon has already said memory pushed its 2026 spend up. *Read: [the hyperscalers layer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/hyperscalers/) and [who the hyperscalers are](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/who-are-the-hyperscalers/)* --- **Get the Wire.** A free brief every day, here and in your inbox. **[Subscribe free →](https://www.sotkn.com/#/portal/signup)** Not investment advice. Do your own research. The "almost three years", "$600 million a day" and "$20 billion" figures are our arithmetic from Amazon's reported backlog, run rate and capex plans. ## References 1. [a16z Show, "Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on Why Amazon Is Investing $220 Billion in AI", episode transcript, 23 Oct 2026](https://podscripts.co/podcasts/a16z-podcast/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-on-why-amazon-is-investing-220-billion-in-ai?ref=sotkn.com) 2. [Reuters via Yahoo Finance, "Amazon cloud capacity sold out through 2027, CEO Jassy says", 23 Oct 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/amazon-cloud-capacity-sold-2027-230625002.html?ref=sotkn.com) 3. [Amazon, "Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results", 30 Jul 2026](https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2026/Amazon-com-Announces-Second-Quarter-Results/default.aspx?ref=sotkn.com) 4. [Amazon second-quarter 2026 earnings call transcript, 30 Jul 2026](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/amzn/transcripts/657334-q2-2026/?ref=sotkn.com) 5. [Amazon first-quarter 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool, 29 Apr 2026](https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/04/29/amazon-amzn-q1-2026-earnings-call-transcript/?ref=sotkn.com) 6. [Amazon Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, SEC](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872426000026/amzn-20260630.htm?ref=sotkn.com) 7. [Microsoft, "Microsoft announces quarterly earnings release date", 7 Oct 2026](https://news.microsoft.com/source/2026/10/07/microsoft-announces-quarterly-earnings-release-date-69/?ref=sotkn.com)