3M Gives Amazon a Warrant on 3.16 Million Shares Tied to $6 Billion of Data-Center Purchases

3M said on Monday, October 19, 2026 that it has given a subsidiary of Amazon a seven-year warrant over up to 3,162,015 3M shares, exercisable at $164.89 each, as part of a wider deal to sell Amazon optical connectivity and other data-center products. The headline reached the MoveSurge news feed at 16:55:54 ET, after the regular close. 3M traded at $162.20 just before it and at $167.24 one minute later, a rise of 3.11%.

Most of the warrant vests only as Amazon buys. According to 3M's Form 8-K, 85% of the shares vest as Amazon pays for those data-center products, and they vest in full once its cumulative payments reach $6 billion. The other 15% vest on event-based milestones. Bought in full at the exercise price, the shares would cost Amazon about $521.4 million, which is the “over $521 million” figure in Reuters' report on the deal.

How the 3M warrant compares with Amazon's other supplier warrants

Amazon has used the same structure with at least two other suppliers. Applied Optoelectronics, which makes optical transceivers, issued it a warrant on up to 7,945,399 shares in March 2025, vesting over $4 billion of Amazon purchases. Generac issued one on up to 1,693,745 shares in September 2026, tied to up to $8 billion of payments for backup generators for Amazon data centers. 3M's $6 billion threshold sits between the two.

The terms differ most in how much stock Amazon gets for each dollar it spends. Dividing the cost of the warrant shares at the exercise price by the purchases needed to vest them gives about 8.7 cents of 3M stock per dollar, against 4.7 cents for Applied Optoelectronics and 4.3 cents for Generac. Counting only the shares that vest on purchases, the figures are 7.4 cents, 3.9 cents and 3.5 cents. Either way 3M is giving roughly twice as much stock per dollar of business. These are our calculations from the filed terms.

3M also set its exercise price close to the market. $164.89 is about 1.7% above $162.20, the last trade before the headline, so the warrant starts near the money (our calculation). Amazon gains if 3M's stock rises from here while its purchases build up, and 3M gains a large customer for products it has been adding capacity to make.

What 3M is selling Amazon

The filing describes the products only as optical connectivity and other data-center products and does not name a product line. 3M has been expanding production of its Expanded Beam Optical (EBO) connectors, which link fiber-optic cables inside data centers, and in July 2026 Microsoft became the first large cloud provider to deploy them. On the same evening as the Amazon filing, 3M said it will take about 4.7% of Taiwan's Genius Electronic Optical through a private placement and work with it on making EBO components. 3M expects that purchase to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

How 3M stock traded after the headline

After the headline the stock went from $162.20 to $167.24 within a minute and stood at $168.00 ten minutes later, 3.58% above the pre-headline price. Trading was thin, as is usual in the hour after the close. Reuters reported the shares up more than 5% in extended trading later that evening. 3M was scheduled to report third-quarter results before the market opened on Tuesday, October 20, so the Amazon deal reached investors a few hours ahead of the company's own quarterly update.