NEW YORK, Feb 24, 2026, 06:46 EST — Premarket
- Amazon shares closed down 2.3% on Monday at $205.27
- Company flagged a $12 billion Louisiana data-center buildout tied to its 2026 spending push
- Investors eye Nvidia earnings on Wednesday as a gauge for the AI infrastructure trade
Amazon.com, Inc. shares fell 2.3% on Monday to $205.27 after the company detailed a $12 billion data-center buildout in Louisiana, the latest marker of how hard Big Tech is leaning into AI infrastructure.
The stock is down 9.4% so far this year, and Tuesday’s session opens with investors still asking the same blunt question: how long do shareholders keep funding the buildout before they see the payoff.
Amazon said the northwest Louisiana project would sit inside a sharply higher 2026 capital spending plan, with expected capital expenditures — or capex, money spent on long-life assets such as data centers — of about $200 billion, up from $131 billion in 2025. A company spokesperson, pressed on whether the Louisiana spend is part of that figure, said: “We regularly make investment announcements at the federal, state, and local level and those investments often occur over many years.” (Reuters)
That debate has moved from a finance footnote to the main event. Bridgewater Associates said Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft are expected to invest about $650 billion in AI-related infrastructure this year, up from $410 billion in 2025. Bridgewater co-chief investment officer Greg Jensen wrote that the boom has entered a “more dangerous phase” and said “Compute demand continues to significantly outpace supply.” (Reuters)
Amazon said the Louisiana buildout would create 540 full-time jobs, plus supporting roles such as electricians and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technicians. It also pledged a $400 million fund aimed at local water infrastructure, after pushback in some communities over data centers’ demands on power grids and water supplies.
The broader tape hasn’t helped. On Monday, the S&P 500 slid 1.0% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1%, with investors rattled by a mix of tariff uncertainty and anxiety over AI’s knock-on effects across the economy. “Tomorrow evening’s Nvidia release might be the next big story,” ING strategist Chris Turner wrote. (Reuters)
Nvidia’s results on Wednesday have become a market-wide check on the AI capex cycle, because chip demand feeds directly into cloud data centers run by companies like Amazon. “This earnings in particular is important because people are so concerned about AI spending – whether we’re in a bubble,” said Ivana Delevska, chief investment officer at Spear Invest, which holds Nvidia shares via an exchange-traded fund. (Reuters)
For Amazon, the near-term focus stays on whether the spending is translating into durable growth at AWS, and whether the company can keep investment high without unnerving shareholders who prefer buybacks and steadier free cash flow.
But plenty can go wrong. The data-center boom is running into real-world constraints — power, water, permits and local opposition — and the returns are not guaranteed if AI demand cools or pricing power shifts against cloud providers.
