MMM ~+5% AH: Amazon gets a warrant on 3.16M shares at $164.89, vesting on $6bn of data-centre optics buys — Q3 BMO today
Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2026 6:20 am
Unusual one to have land the night before earnings.
After Monday's close 3M (MMM) filed an 8-K: it has expanded its commercial relationship with an Amazon subsidiary and issued a separate Amazon subsidiary a seven-year warrant on up to 3,162,015 MMM shares at $164.89 (a bit over $500M of stock at that strike).
How it vests, per the filing:
- 85% vests as Amazon pays for optical connectivity and other data-centre products, fully vested once cumulative payments reach $6bn
- The other 15% vests on event-based milestones that aren't spelled out
- Reuters notes Microsoft became the first hyperscaler to adopt 3M's Expanded Beam Optics for AI data centres back in July
The stock traded around $168–171 after hours, +3.7% to +5.6% depending on the print. It's the same structure Amazon has used with other suppliers: the warrant is a sweetener, and the real signal is the $6bn purchase threshold. That's a big number next to 3M's ~$6.7bn quarterly revenue consensus, though it plays out over years.
Q3 is due before the bell today (EPS consensus ~$2.39–2.41). So the gap comes with an earnings print stacked on top, and management will likely be asked to size the data-centre business on the call. If the quarter is soft, I'd expect the warrant pop to get tested quickly.
Sources: [3M 8-K](https://investors.3m.com/financials/sec ... 261019.htm) | [Reuters via US News](https://money.usnews.com/investing/news ... hares-gain) | [MarketWatch](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/3m-is ... p-f381be0b)
Would you trade the MMM gap before the numbers drop, or wait for the print and the first 15 minutes? And does anyone have a read on which other optics or connectivity names Amazon might be lining up next?
After Monday's close 3M (MMM) filed an 8-K: it has expanded its commercial relationship with an Amazon subsidiary and issued a separate Amazon subsidiary a seven-year warrant on up to 3,162,015 MMM shares at $164.89 (a bit over $500M of stock at that strike).
How it vests, per the filing:
- 85% vests as Amazon pays for optical connectivity and other data-centre products, fully vested once cumulative payments reach $6bn
- The other 15% vests on event-based milestones that aren't spelled out
- Reuters notes Microsoft became the first hyperscaler to adopt 3M's Expanded Beam Optics for AI data centres back in July
The stock traded around $168–171 after hours, +3.7% to +5.6% depending on the print. It's the same structure Amazon has used with other suppliers: the warrant is a sweetener, and the real signal is the $6bn purchase threshold. That's a big number next to 3M's ~$6.7bn quarterly revenue consensus, though it plays out over years.
Q3 is due before the bell today (EPS consensus ~$2.39–2.41). So the gap comes with an earnings print stacked on top, and management will likely be asked to size the data-centre business on the call. If the quarter is soft, I'd expect the warrant pop to get tested quickly.
Sources: [3M 8-K](https://investors.3m.com/financials/sec ... 261019.htm) | [Reuters via US News](https://money.usnews.com/investing/news ... hares-gain) | [MarketWatch](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/3m-is ... p-f381be0b)
Would you trade the MMM gap before the numbers drop, or wait for the print and the first 15 minutes? And does anyone have a read on which other optics or connectivity names Amazon might be lining up next?