Microsoft Misses: Beaten by Google, AWS in Key Q4 Metric Growth

In today's Cloud Wars Minute, I examine why incremental growth matters more than sheer cloud size.

Highlights

00:02 — Made big changes atop the Cloud Wars Top 10 here at the beginning of 2026. Driven by trends in the financial results that the three biggest hyperscalers: Microsoft, Google Cloud, and AWS are reporting. There are changes taking place at the top among those companies, in terms of customer demand and the choices customers are making going forward into the AI Economy.

00:48 — My big point here is that there is a metric, key growth metric, and in Q4 for the first time that I can recall, this key metric, both Google Cloud and AWS beat Microsoft in this. This hasn’t happened that I can recall. The key here isn’t so much about mass accumulated over the years, but about the growth and who customers are spending their money with now.

01:42 — Microsoft Cloud revenue of $51.5 billion, up 26%. AWS, $35.6 billion up 24%. Google Cloud, $17.7 billion up a whopping 48%. Now look at the incremental Q4 over Q3 momentum. AWS up $2.6 billion. Google Cloud up $2.5 billion. Microsoft up $2.4 billion.

03:13 — Google Cloud actually brought in more incremental revenue in Q4 versus Q3 and this is the first time I believe this has ever happened. Google Cloud’s now has $70 billion on an annualized basis, not a little company by any means. In Q4 it grew 48% and it took more new business Q4 versus Q3 than Microsoft did.

04:56 — Google Cloud almost matched what AWS did in incremental growth for Q4, and it beat Microsoft. That validates the position I took when I moved Google Cloud to number one on the Cloud Wars Top 10. These numbers reflect what customers are doing, where they’re spending their money, who they’re choosing, and who they’re going with.

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