Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on October 18 that, according to Axios on October 16 local time, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Chief Financial Officer John Felton said the boom in spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and services is sustainable because it is driving meaningful innovation.
As debt levels swell, valuations remain high and circular financing deals become more frequent, some investors and analysts are increasingly anxious about an “AI bubble,” worrying whether companies’ revenue growth can keep pace with massive infrastructure investment.
John Felton said the company’s AI capital spending is paying off, and his firsthand experience also shows that substantial investment in AI can yield returns. He believes the mature way to view AI is as a tool for increasing productivity, not merely a “cost-cutting tool.”
Felton said the company had a backlog of nearly $500 billion as of the second quarter (IT Home note: approximately 3.35 trillion yuan at current exchange rates), and that this made him “comfortable” with current capital spending. The backlog is supported by a broad customer base—“including industry giants and leading AI labs, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.”
Felton said AWS’s investment in AI servers is producing strong results: “On these servers, we are seeing a payback period of less than 3 years.”
Data show that AWS generated $42.2 billion in revenue in the second quarter (approximately 282.863 billion yuan at current exchange rates), up 36.7% year over year; the division’s AI business has surpassed an annualized revenue run rate of $25 billion (approximately 167.573 billion yuan at current exchange rates), with year-over-year growth reaching triple-digit percentages.