AWS Vs. Microsoft Vs. Google Cloud Earnings Q4 2024 Face-Off
Here’s the head-to-head comparison of AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft’s most recent financial earnings results for Q4 2024 including total sales, operating income, cloud market share and revenue growth.
The battle for worldwide cloud market share between Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google Cloud is heating up during the AI era as all three cloud companies recently reported their cloud earnings results for the fourth quarter 2024.
Google Cloud remains the fastest-growing cloud company on the planet, while AWS remains the global market share leader—although its share has dipped. Microsoft’s cloud business had the highest operating income out of the three although Google Cloud showed some impressive operational growth.
Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $90.6 billion worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 22 percent or $17 billion year over year, according to new data from market research firm Synergy Research Group.
John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group, said AI and generative AI technologies are a major reason for cloud computing growth in Q4 2024.
“Our assessment is that since ChatGPT was launched, GenAI has been responsible for at least half of the increase in cloud service revenues,” said Dinsdale. “That has come from either newly launched GenAI/GPU services or from AI-driven improvements to existing cloud services.”
For full year 2024, cloud infrastructure services hit approximately $330 billion, up $60 billion from 2023 and an increase of $102 billion compared to 2022.
GCP Vs. AWS Vs. Azure
AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft financial cloud earnings results for Q4 2024 are primarily based off revenue generated from each of their flagship platforms including Microsoft Azure, AWS Cloud and the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Microsoft does not make public its Azure revenue figures. Instead, Azure sales are included inside Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud group that also includes server products and other non-Azure cloud services. It does not include productivity sales, such as from Office 365, or sales from PCs like Windows. Microsoft’s fiscal second-quarter 2025 results are in the same three-month span as calendar year fourth-quarter 2024, which ended Dec. 31.
Google Cloud revenue consists of infrastructure, GCP products, Google Workspace and platform services, while AWS revenue includes compute, storage, database and other cloud services sales.
CRN provides a head-to-head comparison of Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud’s fourth quarter earnings results around total revenue, cloud sales growth, operating income and global cloud market share.
Q4 Revenue/Annual Run Rate
AWS: $28.8 billion/$115.2 billion
Microsoft: $25.5 billion/$102 billion
Google Cloud: $12 billion/$48 billion
AWS generated $28.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. The longtime cloud market share leader now has a annual run rate of over $115 billion.
Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business captured total sales of $25.5 billion during the fourth quarter. The cloud group—which includes Azure, server products and other cloud services revenue—is now generating $102 billion annually.
Google Cloud reported total revenue of $12 billion during the fourth quarter. This means Alphabets cloud business is currently running at a $48 billion annual run rate.
Sales Growth Year Over Year
Google Cloud: 30 percent
AWS: 19 percent
Microsoft: 19 percent
Google Cloud grew sales at a faster rate than its larger competitors AWS and Microsoft by reporting a sales spike of 30 percent year over year. Google Cloud’s sales increased from $9.2 billion in Q4 2023 to now $12 billion.
Both AWS and Microsoft Intelligent Cloud business grew at approximately 19 percent year over year.
Microsoft generated $25.5 billion in sales during Q4 2024, up 19 percent year over year compared to $21.5 billion. For Q4 2024, Microsoft reported that server products and cloud services revenue increased 21 percent, driven by Azure, while its other cloud services revenue grew 31 percent year over year.
AWS generated $28.8 billion in Q4 2024, representing a 19 percent sales increase compared to $24.2 billion in Q3 2023.
Cloud Market Share For Q4 2024
AWS: 30 percent
Microsoft: 21 percent
Google Cloud: 12 percent
Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $90.6 billion worldwide, up 22 percent or $17 billion year over year, according to new data from Synergy Research Group.
Ranking in at No. 1 for global market share by winning 30 percent share was AWS during the fourth quarter. In Q4 2023, AWS won 31 percent share.
Microsoft ranked No. 2 with 21 percent share captured during the fourth quarter. In Q4 2023, Microsoft won 24 percent share.
Google Cloud ranked No. 3 with 12 percent share of the global market in the fourth quarter. In Q4 2023, Google won 11 percent share.
All three companies have ranked as the top three global cloud providers in the world since 2018, with AWS keeping its leadership position throughout, followed by Microsoft at No. 2 and Google Cloud in third place.
Operating Income
Microsoft: $10.8 billion
AWS: $10.6 billion
Google Cloud: $2.1 billion
Microsoft Intelligent Cloud group generated $10.85 billion in operating income during the fourth quarter. This represents an operating income growth increase of 14 percent compared to $9.55 billion in fourth quarter 2023.
AWS operating income increased 48 percent year over year during Q4 2024 with AWS reporting $10.6 billion in operating income compared to $7.2 billion in Q4 2023.
Google Cloud operating income increased a record-breaking 142 percent in the fourth quarter. Google Cloud reported operating income of $2.1 billion in Q4 2024, up significantly from $864 million year over year.
Parent Company Results
Amazon Revenue: $188 billion
Amazon Operating Income: $21.2 billion
AWS parent company Amazon generated total sales of $188 billion during the quarter, up from $170 billion year over year.
Amazon’s operating income increased to $21.2 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to $13.2 billion year over year.
Former AWS CEO and current Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, touted AWS during his company’s financial earnings report on Feb. 6.
“When we look back on this quarter several years from now, I suspect what we’ll most remember is the remarkable innovation delivered across all of our businesses, none more so than in AWS where we introduced our new Trainium2 AI chip, our own foundation models in Amazon Nova, a plethora of new models and features in Amazon Bedrock that give customers flexibility and cost savings, liberating transformations in Amazon Q to migrate from old platforms, and the next edition of Amazon SageMaker to pull data, analytics, and AI together more concertedly,” Jassy said. “These benefits are often realized by customers (and the business) several months down the road, but these are substantial enablers in this emerging technology environment and we’re excited to see what customers build.”
Alphabet Revenue: $96.5 billion
Alphabet Operating Income: $31 billion
Google Cloud’s parent company Alphabet generated total sales of $96.5 billion during the fourth quarter, up 12 percent year over year from $86.3 billion.
Total operating income for Alphabet was nearly $31 billion, an increase of 32 percent compared to $23.7 billion in Q4 2023.
“Our AI-powered Google Cloud portfolio is seeing stronger customer demand,” said Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai during the company’s recent Q4 2024 earnings report. “We are building, testing, and launching products and models faster than ever, and making significant progress in compute and driving efficiencies.”
Pichai said Alphabet’s results show the power of its differentiated full-stack approach to AI innovation. “We are confident about the opportunities ahead, and to accelerate our progress, we expect to invest approximately $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025,” he said.
Microsoft Revenue: $69.6 billion
Microsoft Operating Income: $31.6 billion
Microsoft generated $69.6 billion in total sales during the fourth quarter of 2024, representing an increase of 12 percent compared to $62 billion in Q2 2023.
Operating income at Microsoft was $31.6 billion in Q4 2024, an 17 precent increase compared to $27 billion year over year.
“We are innovating across our tech stack and helping customers unlock the full ROI of AI to capture the massive opportunity ahead," said Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella during his company’s recent earnings report. “Already, our AI business has surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $13 billion, up 175 percent year-over-year.”
