Microsoft Cloud Q4: Growth Slips from Q3, RPO Surges 84%

In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I compare Microsoft’s latest cloud results with Google Cloud’s accelerating momentum.

Highlights

00:09 — Microsoft Cloud revenue was almost $60 billion for the quarter, up 27%. The RPO, as I said, was up 84%. It’s now the biggest RPO total, slightly ahead of Oracle. Microsoft Cloud: $678 billion for that. It said that Azure revenue was up 43% and that its revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30 exceeded $100 billion for Azure.

01:46 — So if we look at the last five quarters from Microsoft, the growth rate: 27%. Starting in Q2, the present, going back five quarters: 27%, 29%, 26%, 26%, 27%. So relatively flat over that period of time. The 29% jumped up a little, but the others, all 27s and 26s.

02:14 — Over those same five quarters, Google Cloud’s growth rate has absolutely soared, and the trajectory, the arc of its growth, representing customer demand in the marketplace, has been remarkable. So again, starting from the just-finished quarter and going backward in time: 82%, 63%, 48%, 34%, and 32% growth rates.

02:49 — What we’re talking about here is the arc of the growth. Google Cloud is getting a much bigger share of what’s happening here. It’s winning more business. It’s taking deals away from Microsoft, AWS, and perhaps Oracle as well, and they’re winning a lot of new business.

04:40 — So we’ll get AWS numbers later today. I’ll be following up next week with some insights into that and give the head-to-head comparison. It is an extraordinary time, but the ultimate truth is coming from the customers and where they are deciding to make their investments as they move into the AI Economy.

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