Amazon Dips Into Swiss Bonds to Fund AI Infrastructure as UK Drone Deliveries Take Flight

Amazon debuts in Swiss franc bond market with $200B capex for AI data centers; launches UK drone deliveries and expands AI-powered packaging globally.

Amazon is turning to the Swiss franc bond market for the first time, raising fresh capital through a six-tranche issuance with maturities stretching to 25 years. The move, which mirrors Alphabet’s February debt sale in the same market, underscores the staggering cash demands of the tech giant’s artificial intelligence expansion. CEO Andy Jassy has earmarked $200 billion in capital expenditure for the current year, almost entirely directed at new data centres, as the industry’s cloud providers collectively pour an estimated $725 billion into infrastructure by 2026.

The appetite for Amazon’s debt comes against a backdrop of robust operating performance. First-quarter revenue climbed nearly 17% to $181.5 billion, with the AWS cloud division surging 28%. Yet the heavy spending is squeezing free cash flow, which shrank to $1.2 billion — a clear rationale for tapping new funding sources. Amazon’s in-house chip business, built around its Trainium processors, now generates an annualized revenue run rate of over $20 billion, and Jassy has flagged an order backlog exceeding $225 billion for these components.

Investors have largely cheered the strategy. The stock recently traded at €229.95 on the Xetra exchange, following a 0.69% dip on Monday that left the shares just 1.77% below their 52-week high. Year to date, the equity has advanced roughly 18%. For the current quarter, management guided revenue in a range of $194 billion to $199 billion, with operating profit expected to hit as much as $24 billion.

Alongside the capital markets push, Amazon is rolling out a real-world test of automation in its supply chain. Prime Air officially launched drone deliveries in Darlington, County Durham, marking the service’s first UK foothold. The MK30 drones can carry parcels weighing up to 2.2 kilograms and will serve customers within a 12-kilometer radius of the local logistics hub. While Amazon’s average drone delivery time in the US stands at 36 minutes, the UK service is initially targeting under two hours per drop. The British Civil Aviation Authority is expected to grant additional flight approvals by year-end; the Darlington system is currently capped at about 100 deliveries a day.

The drone programme is part of a broader push to embed artificial intelligence deeper into logistics. Amazon’s “Package Decision Engine” uses deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision to select the optimal packaging for each product, factoring in dimensions, material strength and customer feedback. Since 2015, the company says it has saved more than 3 million tonnes of packaging material through such initiatives, with the technology already deployed in North America and Europe and slated for expansion into India, Australia and Japan.

Analysts remain largely bullish despite insider selling activity. CEO Andrew Jassy disposed of shares in May 2026 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, and worldwide stores chief Douglas J. Herrington sold holdings at an average price of $275. Institutional investors still control 72.2% of outstanding equity. Price targets from major houses sit well above current levels: Benchmark at $370, New Street Research at $350, Morgan Stanley at $330, Goldman Sachs at $325, with a consensus of $313.09. The key drivers underpinning that optimism are the fast-growing AWS chip business and an advertising segment that expanded 24% in the latest quarter. The drone initiative, while not yet a material earnings contributor, signals where Amazon intends to take its logistics network: faster, more automated and tightly woven with AI.