AWS growth accelerates as enterprises shift core and AI workloads to cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS) grew 39.3% year over year in Q3, accelerating for the sixth straight quarter to its fastest growth in nearly five years, driven by enterprises running more core and AI workloads on the platform. AWS's backlog reached $578 billion, growing triple digits annually, with an AI accelerator installed about every 14 seconds. Core compute and storage revenue grew at their fastest rates in years, while operating margins improved on the AI side despite higher component costs. The company acquired DuckLabs to make DuckDB the universal SQL dialect for AWS analytics, and Bedrock token volume grew nearly 17x year over year, with Fortune 500 spending up 7x. CEO Andy Jassy attributed the acceleration to a "flywheel" where leading functionality drives customer adoption, which fuels AI demand and reinvestment. Bedrock now includes OpenAI, Kimi, GLM, and SpaceX models, while AWS Continuum addresses code vulnerabilities at machine speed. AgentCore deployments doubled in Q3, and the company sees a 10-20 year cycle of on-premises IT spending shifting to cloud.