Amazon's $220B AI capex push leaves stock trading at a discount to Walmart
The Information argues that investor enthusiasm for semiconductor stocks and blue-sky vision companies like SpaceX appears to have pulled money out of long-established tech stocks, leaving Amazon looking cheap. The outlet notes Amazon is spending $220 billion this year on capital expenditures to build out AI data center capacity, a risk that it says still does not justify Amazon trading at a discount to Walmart. Citing Koyfin data, it puts Amazon at about 29 times forward earnings versus 37 times for Walmart, while Walmart's revenue is expected to grow about 5.6% this year, roughly a third of Amazon's estimated growth rate.
The valuation debate shows how AI data center spending is weighing on investor pricing of big tech, even for a company as large as Amazon.