AWS Vs. Microsoft Vs. Google Cloud Q3 2022 Earnings Face-Off

CRN breaks down total revenue, profits, sales growth and current market share standings from Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft for third quarter 2022.

The three largest cloud providers in the world —Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft—all recently released their financial earnings for the quarter spanning from July to September.

These three massive technology conglomerates have been leading the global public cloud and cloud services market for years now, while at the same time battling each other for market leadership.

Gartner is projecting that total end-user worldwide spending on public cloud services will hit a record $592 billion in 2023, which would represent a 21 percent increase compared to $490 billion in 2022.

“Cloud migration is not stopping,” said Sid Nag, vice president and analyst at Gartner. “Cloud computing will continue to be a bastion of safety and innovation, supporting growth during uncertain times due to its agile, elastic and scalable nature.”

AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Earnings

All three companies ended quarters on Sept. 30, 2022.

It represented Amazon and Google’s third quarter 2022, while the three months from July to September represented Microsoft’s first fiscal quarter 2023.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon’s cloud business, led by CEO Adam Selipsky, while Google Cloud is Google’s flagship cloud group, run by CEO Thomas Kurian.

It is key to note that Microsoft doesn’t break out its cloud business as a standalone business group and has yet to provides exact dollar figures for its flagship Azure cloud offering. Instead, Microsoft wraps Azure and other cloud services inside the company’s “Intelligent Cloud” segment.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were both bullish about the company’s future in cloud computing during their earnings report with media and analysts last month as the market continues to expand. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy did not attend the Amazon’s recent earnings report.

CRN breaks down AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft’s cloud financial results around total revenue, sales growth, operating income and overall worldwide cloud market share for third quarter 2022, as well as what each company’s leaders had to say about their cloud results.

Total Sales

AWS: $20.5 Billion

Microsoft: $20.3 Billion

Google Cloud: $6.9 Billion

When it comes to total cloud revenue, AWS is still the market leader.

The Seattle-based cloud giant generated $20.5 billion in sales during the quarter, up from $16.1 billion year over year.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Cloud generated total sales of $6.9 billion for the quarter, up from $5 billion in third quarter 2021.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft wraps up Azure and other cloud services sales inside the company’s “Intelligent Cloud” segment. Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment generated $20.3 billion in revenue during the quarter, up from $16.9 billion one year ago.

Cloud Growth Rate

Google Cloud: 38 Percent

AWS: 27 Percent

Microsoft: 20 Percent

Google Cloud has been witnessing massive cloud growth over the past several years.

Google Cloud increased revenue by a whopping 38 percent in its third quarter with total sales of $6.9 billion.

AWS increased its revenue by 27 percent year over year on revenue of $20.5 billion in the third quarter.

Revenue from Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud grew 20 percent year over year to $20.3 billion. The company said overall growth included a 35 percent increase in Azure and other cloud services sales year over year. Microsoft does not provide exact Azure sales figures.

Operating Income

Microsoft: $9 Billion

AWS: $5.4 Billion

Google Cloud: $699 Million (Loss)

Operating income from Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment reached approximately $9 billion during its first fiscal quarter 2023.

Microsoft’s $9 billion in operating income is up from $7.7 billion compared to its first quarter 2022.

AWS’ operating income reached $5.4 billion during the quarter, up from $4.9 billion in third quarter 2021.

Google Cloud has yet to generate a profit. The company’s operating income for the quarter was a loss of $699 million.

However, the third-quarter loss is less than the operating loss Google Cloud has witnessed in prior quarters this year. In second-quarter 2022, Google Cloud reported an operating loss of $858 million. In Google Cloud’s first-quarter 2022, the company had an operating loss of $931 million.

“We do continue to invest meaningfully in [Google Cloud],” said Google’s Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat during the company’s earnings report last month. “We’re still focused very much so on the path to profitability and free cash flow strength here. But we are continuing to invest in the business.”

Q3 2022 Cloud Services Market Share

AWS: 34 Percent

Microsoft: 21 Percent

Google: 11 Percent

AWS is continuing its reign as the global market share leader in cloud services, according to third quarter 2022 data from market research firm Synergy Research Group.

AWS won 34 percent share of the worldwide cloud services market share in third quarter 2022, up from 33 percent share one year ago.

Microsoft captured 21 percent share of the global cloud services market in third- quarter 2022, up from 20 percent share year over year.

Google Cloud won 11 percent share of the worldwide cloud market, up from 10 percent share in third-quarter 2021.

Worldwide enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $57.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022, representing a 24 increase in year-over-year revenue growth, according to Synergy Research Group.

AWS, Microsoft and Google combined for 66 percent share of the total $57.5 billion cloud services market.

“Beyond these three, all other cloud providers, in aggregate, have been losing around 3 percentage points of market share per year but are still seeing strong double-digit revenue growth,” said John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group.

Synergy’s research includes worldwide cloud spending on Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform as-a-Service (PaaS) and hosted private cloud services.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Bold Cloud Statements From Leaders

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky were all bullish about the cloud opportunities ahead.

“The long-term trends that are driving cloud adoption continue to play an even stronger role during uncertain macroeconomic times,” said Google’s Pichai during its earnings report. “Google Cloud helps customers solve today’s business challenges, improve productivity, reduce costs and unlock new growth engines.”

Pichai said, “Customers partner with Google Cloud because we offer a single platform that can analyze data across any cloud.”

Microsoft’s Nadella said his company’s cloud strategy is helping organizations “do more with less today.”

“It helps them align their spend with demand and mitigate risk around increasing energy costs and supply chain constraints,” said Nadella. “We’re also seeing more customers turn to us to build and innovate with infrastructure they already have.”

Amazon’s Olsavsky said AWS is a top priority for Amazon where the company will continue to invest heavily.

“We continue to ramp up our investments in AWS, adding product builders and sales and professional services headcount to help customers save money, invent more quickly in their businesses and transition to the cloud,” said Olsavsky. “The breadth and depth of our service offerings enable us to help them do things like move storage to lower-priced tiers options and shift workloads to our Graviton chips.”