AWS accepts $3bn of Nvidia hardware a month it cannot power
A leaked internal recording and emails seen by Business Insider show AWS paying for GB300 racks before installation as free cash flow turns negative.
Amazon Web Services has taken delivery of billions of dollars of Nvidia GB300 racks it does not yet have enough energy to power, according to emails and a leaked internal recording reported by Business Insider. The deliveries are contributing to negative free cash flow at the cloud unit.
AWS accepted roughly $5 billion of GB300 racks in August 2026 and has reportedly taken about $3 billion worth of hardware each month since. The company has introduced an "Early Rack Receipt" process under which it pays for GPU racks before they are installed.
In the leaked recording of an internal staff meeting, AWS CFO John Felton told Prasad Kalyanaraman, the executive leading AWS AI infrastructure, that the company's free cash flow is now negative.
The shift shows in the numbers: AWS free cash flow fell from $53 billion in Q2 2024 to $7.6 billion in Q2 2026. In the same quarter, AWS revenue grew 37% year-over-year to $42.2 billion, its fastest growth in 18 quarters.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has described AI as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and said the company plans to spend almost $200 billion on infrastructure.
Quick answers
How much Nvidia GB300 hardware did AWS take delivery of?
AWS took delivery of roughly $5 billion of Nvidia GB300 racks in August 2026, and has reportedly accepted about $3 billion worth of hardware each month since.
Why can't AWS power the hardware it received?
According to the report, AWS does not yet have enough energy to power all the Nvidia GPU hardware it has received.
What happened to AWS free cash flow?
AWS CFO John Felton said in a leaked internal recording that free cash flow is now negative. It fell from $53 billion in Q2 2024 to $7.6 billion in Q2 2026.