Amazon shares fell sharply after the company reported greater capital spending than expected and the slowest growth in its core e-commerce business in three years. The company spent more than 77 billion dollars on property and equipment in the third quarter, far above analyst estimates, as it builds data centres to meet demand for artificial intelligence services. Third-quarter revenue rose 12 percent to 201.9 billion dollars, slightly below expectations, while free cash flow over the trailing 12 months turned into an outflow of 42.4 billion dollars, compared with an inflow of 14.8 billion dollars a year earlier. Amazon expects capital expenditure of about 220 billion dollars in 2026, with chief executive Andy Jassy telling analysts it will be meaningfully higher next year. Online sales grew just 2 percent to 68.5 billion dollars, the slowest since early 2023, and fourth-quarter revenue guidance of 240 to 247 billion dollars came in slightly below the 244.5 billion analysts expected. The bright spot was cloud computing: Amazon Web Services revenue rose 39 percent to 46 billion dollars, its fastest growth in nearly five years. The split verdict — booming cloud demand against a heavy cash bill — is now the central question for every Big Tech result this season. Sources: Bloomberg (Hindu BusinessLine), Reuters. Written in our own words for information only.