Amazon made $77.7 billion of profit in 2025. Its business brought in $139.5 billion of cash. The cash flow statement is the page that explains the gap.
The statement also shows where the cash went. Almost all of it went back into the business. Amazon spent it on property and equipment. Here is how to read the statement section by section, using Amazon's 2025 annual report.
What is a cash flow statement? A cash flow statement shows the cash that came into and went out of a company over a period. It splits that cash into three sections: operating, investing and financing.
Operating cash flow is the cash the business itself brings in. It differs from net income, or profit. Net income counts sales when they are made and costs when they arise, even if no cash has moved yet.
Amazon's operating cash flow was $139.5 billion in 2025, against net income of $77.7 billion.
Spending on property and equipment took $131.8 billion of that cash. What was left, called free cash flow, was $7.7 billion, down from $32.9 billion in 2024.
What a cash flow statement shows
A company reports three main statements. The income statement shows sales, costs and profit, which we explain in How to Read an Income Statement. The balance sheet shows what the company owns and owes on one day. The cash flow statement shows the cash itself.
Profit and cash differ for two reasons. Some items change profit without moving any cash. Others move cash at a different time from when they hit profit.
Timing works like this. The income statement counts a sale when it is made, even if the customer pays later. It spreads the cost of a warehouse over many years, even though the cash went out at once.
The cash flow statement has three sections:
Operating activities: cash from selling products and services, after paying suppliers, staff and tax.
Investing activities: cash spent on, or received from, long-lived assets and investments. That includes buildings, equipment, stakes in other companies and bonds.
Financing activities: cash from, or paid to, lenders and shareholders. That includes borrowing, repaying debt, dividends and share buybacks.
Add the three sections together, plus a small effect from exchange rates. The total is the change in the company's cash over the period.
US companies file the statement each quarter in their 10-Q report and each year in their 10-K. Amazon calls it "Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows". All figures here follow US accounting rules, known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, as filed.
Amazon's 2025 cash flow statement, section by section
Source: Amazon SEC filings; YX Insights
In 2025, Amazon's operations brought in $139.5 billion. Investing used $142.5 billion, slightly more than that. Financing added $9.7 billion.
With a $1.2 billion boost from exchange rates, Amazon's cash rose $7.8 billion over the year, to $90.1 billion. That total includes restricted cash, which is cash set aside for a specific use.
The table shows the main lines in each section. They are rounded, so they may not add up exactly.
Line | 2025 ($ billion) |
|---|---|
Operating activities | |
Net income | 77.7 |
Depreciation and amortisation | 65.8 |
Stock-based pay | 19.5 |
Non-operating gains | −14.9 |
Deferred taxes | 11.5 |
Changes in working capital | −20.0 |
Cash from operating activities | 139.5 |
Investing activities | |
Purchases of property and equipment | −131.8 |
Proceeds from property and equipment sales and incentives | 3.5 |
Acquisitions and other investments | −3.8 |
Marketable securities, bought less sold | −10.4 |
Cash used in investing activities | −142.5 |
Financing activities | |
New long-term debt | 15.7 |
Long-term debt repaid | −5.0 |
Short-term debt, net | 0.9 |
Lease and financing obligations repaid | −1.9 |
Cash from financing activities | 9.7 |
Exchange-rate effect | 1.2 |
Net increase in cash | 7.8 |
Source: Amazon Form 10-K for 2025; YX Insights
Operating: why cash differs from net income
Amazon's operating section starts from net income. It then adjusts for every item that changed profit without moving cash. The chart walks through each step.
Source: Amazon SEC filings; YX Insights
The adjustments that add cash back:
Depreciation and amortisation, $65.8 billion. The cost of buildings and equipment is spread over their useful lives. Amortisation does the same for assets you cannot touch, such as software and licences. The cash went out when they were bought, so the yearly charge is added back.
Stock-based pay, $19.5 billion. Staff paid in shares cost the company no cash. That cost still falls on shareholders, because new shares dilute their stake.
Deferred taxes, $11.5 billion. Tax charged against profit this year but due in later years.
The adjustments that take cash away:
Non-operating gains, $14.9 billion. Amazon's 10-K says its 2025 gain came mainly from a higher value on its stake in Anthropic, an AI company. That gain lifted profit, but brought in no cash.
Working capital, $20.0 billion. Working capital is the cash tied up in day-to-day trading. The lines behind it are below.
More inventory, more money owed by customers and growth in other assets used $26.0 billion of cash. Accrued expenses and unearned revenue, which is money customers paid in advance, used another $5.2 billion.
Bills Amazon owed its suppliers rose $11.2 billion, which kept cash in the business. Together, these lines took $20.0 billion away.
Investing: capital spending and other investments
The biggest line in the investing section is capital spending, labelled "Purchases of property and equipment". Amazon spent $131.8 billion on it in 2025, 2.5 times its 2023 level. That was 94% of its operating cash flow.
Amazon's 10-K says the spending was mainly on technology infrastructure, mostly for its cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). The rest added capacity to its warehouse and delivery network.
The other investing lines were smaller. Marketable securities are bonds and similar holdings a company can sell quickly. Amazon bought $54.8 billion of them and sold $44.4 billion.
Acquisitions and other investments used $3.8 billion, including $2.7 billion invested in Anthropic. Sales of equipment and incentives brought in $3.5 billion.
Financing: borrowing, repaying and returning cash
Financing added $9.7 billion in 2025. Amazon borrowed $15.7 billion of new long-term debt and repaid $5.0 billion. Loans due within a year added a net $0.9 billion. Amazon also repaid $1.9 billion of lease and similar obligations.
Amazon paid no dividend and bought back no shares in 2023, 2024 or 2025. A company that returns cash to shareholders shows it here. Apple, for example, spent $90.7 billion on buybacks in its 2025 fiscal year.
Amazon's cash flow over ten years
Source: Amazon SEC filings; YX Insights
Amazon's operating cash flow grew from $17.2 billion in 2016 to $139.5 billion in 2025, about 8 times. Capital spending grew from $7.8 billion to $131.8 billion, about 17 times.
Operating cash flow ran above net income in every year. Over the ten years, operating cash came to $604 billion, against $246 billion of net income. Depreciation and stock-based pay alone added back $452 billion over those years.
Operating cash flow minus capital spending is called free cash flow. Amazon's turned negative in 2021 and 2022, when capital spending passed $60 billion a year. It recovered to $32.9 billion in 2024, then fell to $7.7 billion in 2025.
Four checks for any company's cash flow statement
Four checks help with any company:
Compare operating cash flow with net income. Cash below profit for several years in a row deserves a closer look.
Check what is added back. Large stock-based pay flatters operating cash. One-off gains flatter profit.
Compare capital spending with depreciation. Amazon's spending was 2.0 times its depreciation and amortisation in 2025. Spending above depreciation means the asset base is growing.
Read the latest quarters too. In the 12 months to June 2026, Amazon's capital spending of $173.0 billion was above its $161.4 billion of operating cash.
Valuation models such as a Discounted Cash Flow start from the cash in this statement. Whether the spending pays off shows up later in the Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), which we explain in What Is ROIC?.
The cash flow statement follows the money: what the business brought in, what it spent and how it was funded. In 2025, Amazon's operations brought in $139.5 billion of cash, against $77.7 billion of profit. Nearly all of the cash went back into property and equipment.
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Common questions about the cash flow statement
What are the three sections of a cash flow statement?
The three sections are operating, investing and financing activities. Operating covers cash from running the business. Investing covers cash spent on, or received from, assets and investments, such as buildings, equipment and bonds. Financing covers cash from, or paid to, lenders and shareholders, such as borrowing, repaying debt, dividends and share buybacks.
Why is operating cash flow different from net income?
Operating cash flow differs from net income because profit counts items that move no cash in that period. Depreciation and stock-based pay reduce profit but cost no cash, so they are added back. Gains on investments raise profit without bringing in cash, so they are taken away. Changes in inventory and unpaid bills also shift the timing.
What is the difference between a cash flow statement and an income statement?
An income statement shows sales, costs and profit. It counts sales when they are made and costs when they arise. A cash flow statement shows the cash that actually came in and went out. In 2025, Amazon's income statement showed $77.7 billion of net income. Its cash flow statement showed $139.5 billion of cash from operations.
Is negative cash flow from investing activities bad?
Negative cash flow from investing activities is normal for a company that is growing. It means the company spent more on assets and investments than it received from selling them. Amazon's investing cash flow was negative $142.5 billion in 2025, mostly from spending on property and equipment. The question is whether that spending later earns a good return.
DISCLAIMER: This article is strictly educational. Any information or analysis in this note is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice and nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.