AWS, Google, Microsoft Battle Over $76B Q1 Cloud Market Share

Here’s the exact global cloud market share figures for AWS, Alibaba, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Salesforce for first quarter 2024 as the market increased to $76 billion.

The three largest cloud companies on the planet—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google Cloud—continued to battle for global cloud market share leadership during the first quarter of 2024, as the market ballooned to a record $76 billion.

“Amazon held steady relative to the prior quarter, while Microsoft and Google both saw a marginal increase,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, in an email to CRN. “All three saw their growth rates increase substantially in the last two quarters.”

AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure—combined—accounted for a whopping 67 percent share of the $76 billion global cloud services market in Q1 2024, according to new data from IT market research firm Synergy.

Before breaking down the exact market share figures for the top five cloud leaders during the first three months of 2024—which were AWS, Alibaba, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce—let’s take a quick look at the current cloud services market on a worldwide basis.

$76 Billion Cloud Market In Q1 2024, Up $13.5 Billion

Enterprise spending on cloud companies’ infrastructure services was well over $76 billion during the first quarter of 2024. This represents an increase of $13.5 billion or 21 percent year over year compared to Q1 2023.

“This was a really good quarter for the cloud market with growth rates bouncing back from the relative lows seen through much of 2023,” Dinsdale said. Public Infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS) and Platform as-a-service (PaaS) services account for the bulk of the market, with that section growing 23 percent in Q1 year over year.

“There are still some economic, currency and political headwinds. However, the underlying strength of the market is more than compensating for those constraints, aided in no small part by the impact of generative AI technology and services,” he said.

Overall, Synergy Research Group is forecasting that the cloud market will continue to expand substantially over the next few years. “We are forecasting that it will double in size over the next four years,” Dinsdale said.

Here are the current enterprise cloud services market share figures for AWS, Alibaba, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce that every partner, investor and customer should know in 2024.

No. 5: Salesforce

Q1 2024 Market Share: 3%

Q4 2023 Market Share: 3%

Q1 2023 Market Share: 3%

CRM and cloud giant Salesforce captured 3 percent of the global cloud services market to rank at No. 5 in the first quarter of 2024.

Salesforce has consistently won approximately 3 percent share global cloud market every quarter over the past three years, according to Synergy data.

The San Francisco-based company generated nearly $35 billion in total sales in 2023, up 11 percent year over year.

No. 4: Alibaba

Q1 2024 Market Share: 4%

Q4 2023 Market Share: 4%

Q1 2023 Market Share: 4%

Alibaba continues to capture about 4 percent share of the global cloud services market as of first quarter 2024.

Alibaba subsidiary, Alibaba Cloud, is the Chinese-based company’s cloud computing business. The cloud company has won between 4 percent to 6 percent global market share over the past several years.

Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group generated nearly $4 billion in sales during fourth quarter 2023, up 3 percent year over year.

No. 3: Google

Q1 2024 Market Share: 11%

Q4 2023 Market Share: 11%

Q1 2023 Market Share: 10%

Since 2019, Google has been the perennial third place winner in terms of global cloud market share. In Q1 2024, the tech giant captured 11 percent share of the worldwide cloud market.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company’s cloud business, Google Cloud, generated $9.6 billion in revenue during Q1 2024, up a whopping 28 percent year over year.

Google Cloud’s annual run rate is now over $38 billion.

Operating income for Google Cloud—which had been in the red for every year prior to 2023—was $900 million for first quarter 2024.

No. 2: Microsoft

Q1 2024 Market Share: 25%

Q4 2023 Market Share: 24%

Q1 2023 Market Share: 23%

Microsoft continues to narrow its cloud market share gap against AWS as the software superstar seeks to capture a gold medal, not silver.

In Q1 2024, Microsoft won a record 25 percent share of the global cloud services market, up 2 points year over year compared to 23 percent share in Q1 2023. The Redmond, Wash.-based cloud and software giant has ranked No. 2 in the cloud market for nearly a decade.

Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business generated $26.7 billion in revenue during the first quarter, which means Microsoft’s cloud group has an annual rate of $107 billion.

No.1: Amazon Web Services

Q1 2024 Market Share: 31%

Q4 2023 Market Share: 31%

Q1 2023 Market Share: 32%

AWS is once again the worldwide market share leader in cloud computing, winning 31 percent share of the global market in Q1 2024.

The Seattle-based cloud juggernaut has been the worldwide cloud leader since Amazon pioneered the cloud industry well-over a decade ago. However, Google and Microsoft have both been nipping at AWS’ heels over the past two years. Specifically, Microsoft has gained market share by 2-points over the past year, while AWS’ share dropped 1-point to 31 percent share.

In Q1 2024, AWS reported total sales of $25 billion, representing a 17 percent revenue growth year over year. Amazon’s cloud business now has a record $100 billion run rate.

Other Top Cloud Market Leaders

IBM Market Share Q1 2024: 2%

Oracle Market Share Q1 2024: 2%

Tencent Market Share Q1 2024: 2%

Huawei Market Share Q1 2024: 2%

Prior to 2020, IBM used to crack into the top five for global cloud market share leaders. However, IBM’s share has lowered consistently over the past several years with the company winning 2 percent share in Q1 2024.

Oracle along with Chinese IT giants Huawei and Tencent are also trying to rise about the heated cloud competition. All three companies won around 2 percent share of the global cloud services market in first quarter 2024.

Other companies that won market share of approximately 1 percent during Q1 2024 include Baidu, China Telecom, China Unicom, Fujitsu, NTT, Snowflake, SAP, Rackspace and VMware.