Amazon’s Record Prime Day and UK Wind Deal Highlight Twin Bets on AI and Green Energy

Amazon’s four-day Prime Day 2026 event, shifted to June this year to avoid the World Cup and US Independence Day, is on track to smash records. US consumers alone spent $8.3 billion on the opening day — a 5% jump from 2025 — and Adobe analysts anticipate total revenues of $26.3 billion for the event, which would eclipse last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. According to eMarketer, Amazon captures roughly 60% of those dollars.

Yet the real story this year isn’t just the sales volume — it’s how shoppers are finding the deals. Traffic originating from generative AI sources has nearly doubled, and those visitors convert at significantly higher rates than traditional online shoppers. They spend about 50% more time browsing and are one-third more likely to add items to their cart. The catalyst is Alexa for Shopping, a new assistant that consolidates previous AI tools into a single interface, analyzing purchase history to recommend products and even executing purchases autonomously.

Mobile commerce also hit a milestone: smartphones generated more than half of all online sales on day one. Category standouts included electronics (105% above the June average), home appliances (95% higher), tools and hardware (up 75%), and home and garden (65% ahead).

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Amazon?

Meanwhile, Amazon is tackling a very different challenge behind the scenes: powering the AI and cloud infrastructure that makes these experiences possible. The company has inked what is described as the largest onshore wind-power deal in the UK, signing a long-term agreement with egg Power to purchase 90 megawatts from the planned Chirmorie wind farm in southern Scotland. Local firms will handle construction, and Vestas will supply the turbines. This is Amazon’s 50th green energy project in Britain, part of a broader portfolio that includes external wind and solar farms alongside rooftop panels on its own logistics centers. Once all projects are operational, the company’s UK renewable capacity will exceed 1 gigawatt — enough to power more than one million British homes theoretically.

The energy contract addresses a critical bottleneck for Amazon’s data-intensive businesses. AWS’s revenue climbed 28% to $37.6 billion in the most recent quarter, while total group revenue surpassed $181 billion. But keeping those data centers running requires vast amounts of electricity, and Amazon is planning $200 billion in infrastructure spending overall — a figure that has weighed heavily on the stock.

On Thursday, shares closed near €200, having lost roughly 14% over the past month, a deeper decline than the 13% drop cited in earlier coverage. The stock is now testing its 200-day moving average, a key technical support level around that same price point. Wednesday saw a modest recovery of about 2% to €204.00 as first-day Prime Day data emerged, but the broader trend remains cautious. Analysts, however, see significant upside: the consensus price target stands at $316 per share, implying a potential gain of roughly 35% from current levels. The next major catalyst will be Amazon’s quarterly earnings, where investors will scrutinise whether the company can maintain its high margins in cloud computing — a crucial condition for the stock to find solid ground at the 200-day line.