According to CRN, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud collectively generated $79 billion in total cloud revenue during the third quarter of 2025. All three tech giants reported their financial results last week, with cloud sales continuing to soar year over year. The earnings are primarily based on sales from Microsoft Azure, AWS Cloud, and Google Cloud Platform. Each company has heavily injected AI capabilities into their cloud platforms over recent years, meaning significant portions of this revenue come from AI products. Microsoft notably doesn’t disclose exact Azure revenue figures, instead bundling it within its Intelligent Cloud group alongside server products and other services.
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The AI Gold Rush
Here’s the thing about that $79 billion number—it’s absolutely massive, but we’re basically seeing the AI investment boom finally paying off in a huge way. All three CEOs—Andy Jassy, Satya Nadella, and Sundar Pichai—are clearly positioning AI as their growth engine. And why wouldn’t they? After pouring billions into AI infrastructure and partnerships, these numbers suggest the strategy is working.
But I’ve got to ask: how much of this is sustainable growth versus companies just scrambling to keep up with the AI hype cycle? We’ve seen this movie before with cloud computing itself—explosive growth followed by optimization phases where customers suddenly realize they’re over-provisioned. The same thing could easily happen with AI workloads once the initial experimentation phase cools down.
Microsoft’s Opaque Numbers
Microsoft’s reporting approach really stands out here. They’re the only one of the three that doesn’t break out pure Azure revenue. Instead, we get this Intelligent Cloud group that mixes Azure with server products and other cloud services. It’s convenient, isn’t it? This makes direct comparisons with AWS and Google Cloud nearly impossible.
Now, Microsoft’s probably got good reasons for this—maybe they want to show the strength of their entire enterprise stack rather than just infrastructure. But it does make you wonder what the pure Azure numbers actually look like compared to AWS. Are they still playing catch-up in raw infrastructure, while leaning harder into their application-layer advantages with Copilot and AI services?
The Optimization Question
Looking ahead, I’m curious about when we’ll hit the cloud optimization wall again. Remember 2022-2023 when every company was suddenly focused on cutting their cloud bills? We could see a repeat with AI workloads. Once companies move past the initial “let’s try everything” phase, they’ll start asking harder questions about ROI and efficiency.
The hyperscalers are betting that AI will create entirely new categories of spending rather than just replacing existing workloads. But history suggests that cloud spending goes through cycles—massive expansion followed by optimization. With economic uncertainty still lingering, how long until CFOs start scrutinizing those AI bills more carefully?
