Amazon has lost $450 billion in value during this historic losing streak. Here’s what’s dragging it down

Amazon shares whipsawed on Tuesday, as the stock attempted to make a comeback from a historic slide.

Should the stock close in the red, it would mark a 10th consecutive negative session, tying the company’s longest streak of daily losses on record, which it notched in 1997.

The nine-day slide reached Friday is the worst streak since 2006.

Amazon shares have lost roughly 18% of their value since Feb. 2, axing about $450 billion in market valuation as investors question the merits of its artificial intelligence spending plans.

The selling frenzy around Amazon is tied to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report released earlier this month.

Amazon said it expects to spend $200 billion in capital expenditures this year, a nearly 60% increase from last year and more than $50 billion above Wall Street’s forecast. Most of the spending is expected to go to AI-related initiatives, which require more infrastructure such as data centers, chips and networking equipment.

Investors have grown increasingly concerned about tech companies’ hefty AI investments and their potential to shrink or erase free cash flows.

Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon’s capital expenditures could hit $700 billion this year as the companies race to build out more infrastructure.

Alphabet and Microsoft shares slid more than 1% on Tuesday, while Meta’s stock was up less than a percent. Shares of Microsoft and Alphabet are both headed for their fifth straight negative session.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy defended the company’s massive outlay, telling analysts in a conference call that he’s confident it will “yield strong returns on invested capital.”

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman has also sought to justify the spending increase, telling CNBC in an interview last week that the capex boost will allow the company to seize AI opportunities in the cloud.

Wedbush analysts wrote in a research note following Amazon’s fourth-quarter report that the company is now in “prove it mode” to show investors it can deliver a return on capex spending.

“The increase in spending will remain an overhang as investors digest the guide and will likely need to see more tangible returns before regaining comfort,” the analysts wrote. The firm has an outperform rating on Amazon shares.

Andrew Boone, Citizens managing director and research analyst, told CNBC on Tuesday that he remains “bullish” on AWS despite the recent sell-off.

He pointed to Jassy’s comment that Amazon expects to double data center capacity by 2027 as an “underappreciated” growth driver to the cloud business.

“We think that’s going to lead to an acceleration in terms of AWS revenue as more capacity comes online,” Boone said in an interview on CNBC’s “The Exchange.”

— CNBC’s Nick Wells contributed to this report.