Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) reported third-quarter results after the market close on Thursday, and the headline numbers were not pretty. The company posted revenue of $201.94 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $202.31 billion, according to market data. Earnings came in at $1.89 per share, also short of the $1.97 per share analysts were expecting.

Total revenue still grew 12% year-over-year. Here's how the segments stacked up:

• North America: $112.9 billion, up 6%
• International: $43.1 billion, up 5%
• Amazon Web Services: $46 billion, up 39% (fastest growth in almost five years)

That AWS number is the one worth staring at. A 39% growth rate for a business of that size is not normal. It's the kind of acceleration that makes you wonder if someone forgot to tell the cloud market it's supposed to be maturing.

CEO Andy Jassy was happy to explain why. "Our AWS investment in functionality and infrastructure is working, with over 39% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 ($184 billion revenue run rate) and projected revenue growth rates of over 40% both in 2027 and in 2028," he said.

Then he dropped a line that sounds like a flex but is also just math: "There has never been a trillion-dollar revenue business, and we may have two of them in the next five to 10 years."

He didn't specify which two. But you can probably guess one of them is AWS, and the other is the retail operation that keeps grinding along.

Cash flow told a more complicated story. Operating cash flow increased 29% to $168.3 billion for the trailing 12 months. Free cash flow, however, flipped to an outflow of $42.4 billion. The culprit? A year-over-year increase of $94.8 billion in purchases of property and equipment, net of proceeds from sales and incentives. In English: Amazon is spending enormous amounts of money on infrastructure, likely data centers and AI capacity, and that spending is eating into free cash flow. The company ended the period with $58.71 billion in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash.

For the fourth quarter, Amazon expects revenue between $240 billion and $247 billion, versus estimates of $244.51 billion. That's a wide range that straddles the consensus, which is about as noncommittal as guidance gets. Operating income is expected to be between $28.5 billion and $33.5 billion, compared to $25 billion in the same quarter last year.

Management discussed the quarter on an earnings call at 5 p.m. ET.

AMZN Stock Falls After Earnings

Investors focused on the double miss and the hefty capex bill. Amazon shares were down 6.95% in after-hours trading, at $226.85 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to market data.

The setup is familiar: a company investing heavily in future growth while the current quarter's numbers come in a little light. Whether the market forgives the spending depends on whether AWS keeps growing at 39% and whether that trillion-dollar revenue dream stays on track. For now, the after-hours tape says investors want to see the profits before they buy the vision.