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 Q3 2025 financial results last week, with cloud sales continuing to soar across the board. The earnings are primarily based on sales from Microsoft Azure, AWS Cloud, and Google Cloud Platform. Microsoft doesn’t disclose exact Azure revenue figures, instead bundling them within its Intelligent Cloud group alongside server products. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all made important remarks about their cloud performance. All three providers have heavily injected AI throughout their cloud platforms over recent years, meaning much of this revenue includes AI products and capabilities.
The AI-Fueled Growth Engine
Here’s the thing about that $79 billion number – it’s not just traditional cloud computing anymore. We’re talking about AI becoming the primary growth driver across all three platforms. Basically, every major cloud service now has AI capabilities baked in, whether it’s through machine learning services, generative AI tools, or specialized AI infrastructure. And customers are clearly willing to pay premium prices for these advanced capabilities.
But what’s really interesting is how each company approaches this differently. Microsoft has its tight integration with OpenAI and Copilot across the entire stack. AWS is betting on its Bedrock platform and custom chips. Google’s leveraging its deep AI research history and TensorFlow ecosystem. They’re all chasing the same AI dollars, but taking different paths to get there.
The Microsoft Mystery
Now, Microsoft’s reporting approach always makes me wonder – why keep Azure revenue figures hidden within the Intelligent Cloud group? It’s not like investors wouldn’t want to see those numbers separately. My guess is they’re using that bundling to make the overall cloud business look more stable, especially when you consider they’re including enterprise server products that might not be growing as fast.
Still, you have to give Satya Nadella credit – the AI integration strategy appears to be paying off big time. When you can sell AI as part of your existing cloud packages rather than as separate products, the revenue just flows more naturally. It’s becoming harder for customers to separate “cloud” from “AI” spending, and that’s exactly what these companies want.
The Real Story Behind the Numbers
Look, $79 billion in one quarter is absolutely staggering when you think about it. That’s more than many countries’ GDP. But here’s what worries me – how much of this growth is sustainable? Are we seeing genuine value creation, or just companies shifting budgets from traditional IT to cloud and AI?
The operating income figures would tell us more about profitability, but even without those, you can see the pattern. Every enterprise feels pressure to adopt AI, and the cloud providers are the obvious beneficiaries. The question is whether this becomes a permanent shift or just a temporary boom. Personally, I think we’re seeing the foundation of the next decade of enterprise computing being laid right now.
