Amazon vs Microsoft vs Google: 실적 이후 AI 클라우드 경쟁의 승자는?

Amazon’s cloud computing segment expanded faster than anticipated in the second quarter, with revenue rising nearly 37%—marking its strongest growth since 2021. In a Thursday statement, the digital commerce company reported that Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $42.23 billion in revenue during the June quarter, surpassing the $40.54 billion consensus forecast from analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. This represents an acceleration from the 28% growth recorded in the first quarter.

Within AWS, both the artificial intelligence business and the unit’s custom chips each generated over $25 billion in annualized revenue, more than doubling compared to last year.

Despite this rapid expansion, Amazon remains the dominant force in cloud computing. Microsoft announced Wednesday that revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 43%, up from 40% in the March quarter. The technology giant highlighted over $100 billion in combined Azure and cloud revenue over the trailing twelve months, while Amazon’s equivalent figure stands at $148.40 billion. Meanwhile, Alphabet reported last week that Google Cloud’s quarterly revenue surged approximately 82% to nearly $25 billion, following 63% growth in the first quarter. Over the past year, Google Cloud’s revenue now approaches $78 billion.

Following Alphabet’s earnings release, Evercore analysts Mark Mahaney and Greg Melich noted in a Monday research note that “although hard to see anyone matching GOOGL’s pace of sequential dollar revenue growth, which raises the possibility of share shifts that could be a modest investor concern.” Despite acknowledging Google Cloud’s momentum, they recommended buying Amazon stock.

AWS continues to drive substantial profitability for its parent company. The subsidiary reported $16.62 billion in second-quarter operating income, significantly exceeding StreetAccount’s $13.62 billion consensus estimate. AWS maintained a 36.8% operating margin for the quarter, slightly ahead of Google Cloud’s 35.6%. Consequently, nearly 61% of Amazon’s total operating profit now originates from AWS.

Like its competitors, Amazon has been aggressively investing in infrastructure to meet surging customer demand for artificial intelligence compute capacity. Second-quarter capital expenditures totaled $54.21 billion, a 68% increase that surpassed StreetAccount’s $49.35 billion consensus. To support this expansion, AWS announced it would begin hosting OpenAI models, while Meta secured a three-year agreement to deploy hundreds of thousands of AWS Graviton chips.