New York, March 3, 2026, 08:12 EST — Premarket
- Amazon shares dip before the bell after AWS cites drone strikes in the UAE and Bahrain
- Risk-off trade hits tech as oil jumps and traders brace for inflation pressure
- Investors watch AWS service updates and Friday’s U.S. jobs report
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) shares fell 0.8% to $208.39 in premarket trading on Tuesday after its cloud unit said drone strikes damaged facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The stock ended the prior session at $210.16. 1
The incident matters because AWS is Amazon’s main profit engine and a key driver of how investors value the company. Even short disruptions can spook customers that run payments, logistics and AI workloads in the cloud.
It also lands in a market that is already in a defensive mood. Traders have been dumping megacap tech on the view that higher energy prices could reignite inflation and keep interest rates higher for longer.
Nasdaq 100 futures were down about 2.3% as the Middle East conflict pushed oil and shipping worries back to the top of the tape. “Much will depend on the price of oil,” Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid said. “Any sustained spike would undoubtedly trigger a more meaningful risk-off move.” 2
AWS said on Sunday that power to its UAE data center was shut down temporarily after objects struck the facility, triggering sparks and a fire, and that it could take several hours to restore connectivity in one affected “Availability Zone.” An Availability Zone is a separate cluster of one or more data centers designed to limit the spread of failures. 3
On Monday, Amazon’s broader footprint in the region also started to look messier. Amazon closed its fulfillment center operations in Abu Dhabi, suspended deliveries across the region and told employees in Saudi Arabia and Jordan to remain indoors, Business Insider reported, citing an internal memo. 4
The flare-up is forcing a rethink of how exposed the tech buildout has become in the Gulf, where cheap energy and state-backed spending have pulled in foreign capital. AWS has said it will invest more than $5.3 billion to build a new data-center region in Saudi Arabia by 2026, alongside big commitments by peers including Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google Cloud tied to the region. 5
Away from the conflict, Amazon on Monday flagged fresh spending in Europe. It said it would invest an additional 18 billion euros ($21 billion) in Spain to expand data centers and boost AI innovation, bringing its total investment in the country to 33.7 billion euros. Chief global affairs and legal officer David Zapolsky said: “With this investment, we make Spain the AI epicentre of our operations in Europe.” 6
In the U.S., Amazon Data Services is acquiring George Washington University’s Virginia Science and Technology campus for $427 million, the university said, part of a rapid data-center expansion tied to AI demand. The campus student newspaper said the deed authorizes Amazon to build a data or information technology center on the site in Ashburn, Virginia, and Amazon did not immediately comment. 7
Investors have been weighing that spending binge against near-term cash generation. Amazon projected about $200 billion of capital spending in 2026, up from $131 billion in 2025, a jump that put the stock under pressure earlier this year. 8
The risk now is two-track: a longer cloud disruption that dents AWS’s reputation in a region that has become a magnet for new data centers, and a broader market rout if oil keeps climbing. Either would keep traders leaning on the stock, even if the direct financial hit proves small.
For the U.S. session ahead, investors will watch for updates on AWS service restoration, oil’s next move and whether the tech selloff steadies. The next major macro catalyst is the U.S. employment report for February, due on Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. 9
