Amazon Falls 9.6% YTD as AI Infrastructure Costs Weigh on Valuation
Amazon shares have fallen 9.6% year-to-date as investors weigh the company's heavy spending on AI model development and data center compute capacity. Market concerns over frontier AI unit economics and loss-leading query costs have pressured Amazon's valuation relative to peers.
1. Year-to-Date Share Performance
Amazon stock is down 9.6% since the start of the year, reflecting investor unease over the company's accelerated capital outlays on AI infrastructure. This decline places Amazon among the larger YTD underperformers in the AI-first cohort.
2. AI Infrastructure Spending and Unit Economics
The company has committed billions to build frontier AI models and expand data center compute capacity, but each user query currently operates as a loss leader. Concerns over high per-query costs and unsettled unit economics have heightened near-term margin pressure, even as long-term gains remain a potential offset.