Amazon reported second-quarter results that underscored how fast AWS is scaling—and how much AI infrastructure is still lagging demand. AWS revenue rose to $42.2 billion, up 37%, with operating income of $16.6 billion and backlog climbing to $496 billion, according to the company’s earnings materials. CEO Andy Jassy said AWS is at a $169 billion annualized run rate and called growth “accelerating” for a fifth straight quarter. At the same time, Amazon’s free cash flow swung negative to negative $7.6 billion as equipment purchases surged, reflecting mounting AI buildout costs. Jassy told investors that Amazon expects to spend $220 billion on capital expenditures in 2026 and still will not have enough capacity for demand in 2026 or 2027. For higher education, the update signals continued pressure on cloud pricing, compute allocation, and contract performance for campus AI initiatives that rely on hyperscaler capacity—especially for programs scaling generative AI, research computing, and institutional analytics.