- AWS CFO John Felton says AI capital expenditures are paying off and that the spending is sustainable.
- Felton cites a nearly $500 billion order backlog as of Q2 and says AWS sees paybacks of under three years on its AI servers.
- AWS posted Q2 revenue of $42.2 billion, up 36.7% year over year, with an AI revenue run rate above $25 billion growing at a triple-digit percentage rate.
- The comments follow a Gartner report estimating that more than $3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure spending could be exposed to impairment by the end of 2030.
- Felton says backlash against data center construction is a threat to the AI buildout and that AI companies need to be more proactive in communicating with communities.
Quotes
“The demand is real”
“We're seeing paybacks of under three years on those servers.”
“What we saw is a very linear line between productivity and token usage”