AWS CEO Matt Garman defends AI spending with a spread-out customer base

Amazon Web Services is about to spend an enormous amount of money on AI infrastructure. CEO Matt Garman wants everyone to know it is not betting the farm on one or two customers to pay for it. In an October 8, 2026, appearance on the a16z podcast, Garman said AWS’s largest single customer accounts for only a single-digit percentage of total revenue. What Garman actually said The headline number is capital expenditure. Garman projected AWS capex of around $220 billion for 2026. Garman said AWS is setting aside cloud capacity for emerging startups while continuing to serve large enterprises. Startups make up an estimated 30-40% of AWS revenue. The growth numbers behind the confidence Garman pointed to an annual revenue figure for AWS estimated between $169 billion and $170 billion. That reflects a 37% year-over-year increase. By the first quarter of 2026, the AWS AI revenue run rate had topped $15 billion, with projections calling for more than $25 billion later on. Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s platform for building applications on top of AI models, has posted 170% quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in certain periods. Capacity on Trainium, Amazon’s in-house AI training chip, is sold out f...