What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Amazon (AMZN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Amazon generated $149B of operating cash flow and -$2.47B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -1.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Amazon (AMZN) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Amazon's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Amazon (AMZN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$149B

Capex

-$151B

Free Cash Flow

-$2.47B

FCF Margin

-1.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Amazon (AMZN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$2.47B

Cash flow breakdown for Amazon (AMZN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$149B	$149B
Capital Expenditure	-$151B	-$2.47B
Free Cash Flow	-$2.47B	-$2.47B
Acquisitions	-$19.3B	-$21.8B
Other Investing	-$6.65B	-$28.4B
Net Debt Change	$63B	$34.6B
Other Financing & FX	$228M	$34.8B
Net Cash Increase	$34.8B	$34.8B

Operating Cash Flow$149B
Capital Expenditure-$151B
Free Cash Flow-$2.47B
Acquisitions-$19.3B
Other Investing-$6.65B
Net Debt Change$63B
Other Financing & FX$228M
Net Cash Increase$34.8B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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