CLAIM #7302 · Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) · 2023Q4 earnings call · Feb 1, 2024 · due Dec 31, 2024
“As we look forward to 2024, we anticipate CapEx to increase year-over-year, primarily driven by increased infrastructure CapEx, support growth of our AWS business, including additional investments in generative AI and large language models.”
Brian Olsavsky · CFO
In context
“nt reductions from earlier in the year and a slowdown in the pace of hiring. Shifting to free cash flow. On a trailing 12-month basis, free cash flow adjusted for finance leases was $35.5 billion, an improvement of $48.3 billion year-over-year. The largest driver of the improvement in free cash flow is our increased operating income, which we are seeing across all three of our segments. We're also seeing improvements in working capital, notably in inventory efficiency driven by our regionalization efforts. Next, let's turn to capital investments. We define our capital investments as a combination of CapEx plus equipment finance leases. In 2023, full year CapEx was $48.4 billion, which was down $10.2 billion year-over-year, primarily driven by lower spend on fulfillment and transportation. As we look forward to 2024, we anticipate CapEx to increase year-over-year, primarily driven by increased infrastructure CapEx, support growth of our AWS business, including additional investments in generative AI and large language models. One thing I'd like to highlight in our first quarter guidance is that we recently completed a useful life study for our servers and we are increasing the useful life from 5 years to 6 years beginning in January 2024. We will have this anticipated benefit to our operating income of approximately $900 million in Q1, which is included in our operating income guidance. As we turn the calendar to 2024, we are excited to continue upon the great work the teams have been able to deliver in 2023. We remain focused on streamlining and prioritizing projects in an effective way that reduces costs and also allows us to continue innovating and inventing for customers. With that, let's move on to questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with Go”
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SEC filings for AMZN ↗ · Claim quote is verbatim from the 2023Q4 earnings call.