Amazon Web Services (AWS) has committed most of its 2027 cloud computing capacity to major customers, and part of 2028 as well, according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.
Speaking on the a16z Show podcast on October 23, Jassy said “2027 is largely sold out” and that a good chunk of 2028 has gone the same way. Customers have fully committed 2026 as well, except for the cloud resources Amazon holds back for on-demand services. The comments came even though Amazon plans to spend about $220 billion on capital expenditure this year.
The picture is narrower than it first sounds. Jassy said the commitments cover large allocations of computing capacity, not every AWS service, and the company still reserves room for on-demand cloud workloads on Amazon EC2 and Amazon Bedrock.
That leaves a timing gap for businesses that run their own cloud workloads. AWS lets customers request future-dated EC2 Capacity Reservations between five and 120 days ahead, depending on its forecast capacity. EC2 Capacity Blocks for ML let customers reserve GPU-based cloud resources for scheduled workloads, and availability varies by instance type and location. Next to deals that stretch into 2028, 120 days is short.
The limits behind the tight supply are physical. Jassy named data centre availability, electricity and memory supply as constraints, and said shortages would continue beyond 2027. Memory is also forcing AWS to choose between AI and conventional cloud workloads, since AI accelerators use high-bandwidth memory (HBM) while standard servers rely on other forms of DRAM.
Long term contracts help fund the build. AWS expanded its OpenAI agreement by $100 billion over eight years in the first quarter. Together with an earlier $38 billion arrangement, the deal totals about $138 billion. Amazon’s second quarter filing listed roughly $496 billion in remaining performance obligations as of June 30, but that figure covers contracted revenue Amazon has not yet recognised, not cloud capacity customers have physically reserved.
On whether AWS would favour AI developers willing to pay more over established cloud customers, Jassy rejected the idea. “We’re not going to squeeze our customers,” he said. Amazon has not disclosed how much cloud capacity customers have committed for 2027 and 2028, or how much remains for on-demand buyers. Until it does, businesses weighing early commitments against on-demand cloud supply are planning with limited information.
