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<\/p>\nAmazon will report first quarter 2026 financial earnings on Wednesday. Here are five key things to know and watch for during Amazon\u2019s earnings report around AWS sales, its new Anthropic deal and the impact of the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
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Will Amazon CEO<\/a> Andy Jassy discuss the recent drone attacks on its Amazon Web Services data centers<\/a> in the Middle East?<\/p>\n Just how much does Wall Street expect AWS revenue<\/a> to grow in the first quarter of 2026?<\/p>\n What will Amazon executives highlight regarding its massive new Anthropic deal?<\/p>\n These questions will hopefully be answered during Amazon\u2019s first quarter 2026 earnings report<\/a> set for April 29. CRN breaks down the five biggest things to watch for during Amazon\u2019s Q1 2026 financial earnings results on Wednesday.<\/p>\n [Related: 8 Huge New AWS Partner Programs, Incentives And AI Tech For The Channel<\/a>]<\/p>\n AWS Q1 2026 Expected Sales Growth: 26 Percent<\/p>\n AWS is Amazon\u2019s main profit driver, accounting for a whopping 57 percent of Amazon\u2019s operating income in 2025. AWS sales growth<\/a> is critical to its parent company\u2019s future.<\/p>\n Wall Street analysts are forecasting that AWS will report total sales growth of 26 percent year over year for Q1 2026 to around $36.8 billion.<\/p>\n This would be greater growth for AWS on both a concurrent and year-over-year basis.<\/p>\n During Amazon\u2019s recent fourth quarter 2025, AWS captured $35.6 billion in revenue, up 24 percent year over year.<\/p>\n One year ago in its first-quarter 2025, AWS<\/a> generated $29.3 billion in revenue, up 17 percent year over year.<\/p>\n However, some analysts, like UBS\u2019 Stephen Ju, expect AWS to report upwards of 38 percent sales growth year over year for Q1 2026.<\/p>\n What To Watch For: If Wall Street is correct and AWS reports 26 percent growth year over year, it shows that the world\u2019s largest cloud company can still grow revenue meaningfully on top of an already significant figure.<\/p>\n Middle East Conflict Affecting AWS Data Centers<\/p>\n When the war broke out in the Middle East between the United States, Israel and Iran, AWS data centers may not have been top of mind in the discussion.<\/p>\n However, several AWS data centers in the Middle East were hit by drone strikes in early March as the war began, which knocked out power in AWS facilities in the United \u2060Arab Emirates and Bahrain.<\/p>\n \u201cThese strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage,\u201d AWS said in early March.<\/p>\n Weeks later, AWS\u2019 data centers in the region were disrupted once again by ongoing drone activity that impacted Amazon infrastructure. This forced AWS customers to move workloads to other Amazon data centers.<\/p>\n What To Watch For: Geopolitical matters are rarely ever discussed in technology firms\u2019 financial earnings reports. However, with the war in the Middle East still raging on\u2014including potential energy and fuel issues\u2014watch to see if Amazon execs explain their security and data center strategy in the region and if any more disruptions are expected.<\/p>\n Anthropic\u2019s $100 Billion Bet On AWS<\/p>\n Last week, Amazon struck a deal with Anthropic that guarantees Amazon $100 billion in revenue over the next 10 years for providing massive computing capacity.<\/p>\n The deal includes current and future generations of Trainium, which is Amazon\u2019s custom silicon, and tens of millions of Amazon\u2019s CPU Graviton cores. Anthropic will secure up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity to train and power their advanced AI models.<\/p>\n AWS customers will be able to access the full Anthropic-native Claude console from within AWS.<\/p>\n Separately, Amazon will invest $5 billion in Anthropic and up to an additional $20 billion in the future tied to certain commercial milestones. This is in addition to the $8 billion Amazon previously invested in Anthropic.<\/p>\n What To Watch For: If Andy Jassy weighs in on this new partnership and what Amazon\u2019s additional $20 billion investment in the future is tied to.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s New Anthropic Partnership And Q1 Earnings<\/p>\n