Amazon Web Services is experiencing a slight dip in its dominance of the global cloud market, with a 2-point drop in its cloud market share during the fourth quarter of 2023. In contrast, Microsoft’s cloud market share increased by nearly 2 points compared to the previous year. The data, provided by IT market research firm Synergy Research Group, reveals that enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $73.7 billion in Q4 2023, marking a significant 20% increase from $61.6 billion in the same quarter of the previous year.
John Dinsdale, Vice President and Chief Analyst for Synergy, noted that it was a “banner quarter for the cloud market,” with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google still holding a substantial share of cloud spending, accounting for 67% in Q4. Microsoft’s satisfaction can be traced to its market share growth of almost 2 full percentage points, reaching a new high. Dinsdale observed that Google’s share increased while Amazon’s saw a slight decline, with Amazon still maintaining a considerable lead over Microsoft, although the gap is narrowing.
The top five cloud market-share leaders in Q4 2023 were Alibaba, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Salesforce. The quarter saw a record increase in spending, jumping by $5.6 billion from the previous quarter, the largest sequential increase in the history of the cloud market. The strong performance is attributed to the impact of generative AI technology and services, which have significantly contributed to boosting cloud spending. Overall, worldwide enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services in 2023 amounted to approximately $270 billion, reflecting a 19% increase from the previous year.
