On January 5, 2026, Amazon officially rolled out Alexa+ on the web via Alexa.com for early-access users, marking the first time its AI assistant can be accessed through a browser. The web interface supports text-based interactions alongside existing Echo device and mobile app experiences, and integrates with tens of thousands of services—including Angi, Expedia, Square and Yelp—enabling users to manage calendars, shopping lists, smart-home devices and content discovery in one place. According to Amazon, early-access participants have doubled their engagement, using Alexa+ for shopping three times more and for recipe guidance five times more compared with the legacy assistant, underscoring the company’s push to make Alexa+ a ubiquitous, task-oriented AI companion.

In its third quarter of fiscal 2026, Amazon reported consolidated sales of $180.2 billion, up 13% year over year and an acceleration from 9% growth in Q1. High-margin segments led the way: AWS sales climbed 20% to $33.0 billion—its strongest growth rate since 2022—and advertising revenue rose 24%, up from 23% in Q2. CEO Andy Jassy highlighted AI demand as a key catalyst for AWS, while the advertising business benefited from increased programmatic spend. Management guided Q4 sales to a range of $206 billion to $213 billion, implying 10%–13% growth in the critical holiday period.

Amazon’s trailing-12-month operating cash flow grew 16% year over year to $130.7 billion, providing ample liquidity to fund its AI infrastructure build-out. In Q3 alone, the company invested $34.2 billion in capital expenditures—driven primarily by AI-related data centers—pressuring trailing-12-month free cash flow down to $14.8 billion from $47.7 billion a year earlier. CFO Brian Olsavsky emphasized that these investments are aimed at delivering long-term returns, and that the company retains flexibility to adjust spending if market conditions warrant.

Amazon shares trade at roughly 33 times trailing earnings, a premium justified by accelerating growth in AWS and advertising but one that offers little cushion against execution risks or an economic slowdown. The valuation implies high expectations for continued AI-driven expansion, yet if AWS growth decelerates or consumer demand weakens, the stock could underperform peers. Investors will be watching operating cash flow trends and capital expenditure discipline closely to gauge whether Amazon can sustain its multiple while funding ambitious AI initiatives.