Amazon, Google, and Microsoft control 60% of the global cloud. As we observed with the AWS outage, it poses (many) problems.

On October 20, an AWS outage caused half of the Internet to shudder. Fortunately, WordPress does not rely on Amazon Web Services infrastructure to continue operating, which allowed us to report the event firsthand. However, the AWS outage demonstrates how fragile the intricate web of interconnected services that underpins the digital world truly is. From Netflix to Canva, including AI tools such as Perplexity and games like Fortnite, millions of people experienced how a localized problem somewhere in Virginia could ruin their day.

But… what if instead of AWS, it had been Microsoft Azure? Or Google Cloud Platform? In whose hands does the stability of the Internet lie?

The striking reality of the global cloud market

The global market for cloud services is growing at an unprecedented rate, driven primarily by demand for the infrastructure required to support AI. In fact, analysis by Gartner projects that worldwide spending on public cloud services will reach $723.4 billion in 2025, which represents a year-over-year growth of 21.5% compared to 2024.

Nevertheless, the defining feature of this ecosystem is not simply growth, but rather the extreme concentration. The market is dominated by an oligopoly of massive providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud (GCP). These “Big Three” collectively control more than 60% of the global cloud infrastructure market. In fact, if we broaden the analysis, the global infrastructure is controlled by just five major companies (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, and Oracle), which account for 70% of the market.

This concentration, intensified by the fact that the majority of leading providers are headquartered in the United States, creates a risk of systemic concentration. Critical global services—including defense, banking, and governmental infrastructures—have migrated to these platforms, rendering them highly dependent on the operational continuity of these providers. Operational failures, such as the AWS outage, have demonstrated that a disruption in a single provider can affect financial stability and business continuity on a macro scale.

The Cloud, a dangerous oligopoly: the power of three

According to estimates for the second quarter of 2025, the distribution of global cloud infrastructure market share is clearly concentrated as follows:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS): It maintains its established leadership with a 30% market share. Its leading position stems from being the market pioneer and offering the most comprehensive and mature platform, sustaining a hard-to-match ecosystem advantage. AWS provides hosting and cloud computing services to more than one million companies worldwide, including well-known organizations such as Amazon, Disney+, Tinder, and Netflix, among others. In 2024, AWS’s net revenue increased 19% year-over-year to $107.6 billion (€103.52 billion).
• Microsoft Azure: With 20% of the market, Azure leverages its deep integration with Microsoft’s enterprise products to maintain its position. Its growth strategy has focused on providing hybrid solutions and capitalizing on synergies with productivity tools and AI development.
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP): With a 13% market share, GCP stands out for its data analytics and machine learning (ML) capabilities. For organizations prioritizing these areas, GCP often offers tools and performance superior to its competitors, although its smaller market share may translate into a more limited ecosystem of third-party tools.

As you can see, the “Big Three” control over 60% of the market, while the rest of the global competitors hold much smaller, residual percentages. In fact, the massive investment required to operate large-scale data centers and lead innovation in generative AI constitutes a formidable barrier to entry, ensuring this oligopolistic structure persists or even strengthens in the future.

Thus, secondary competitors seek out niches that the Big Three cannot fully satisfy, generally focusing on aspects such as sovereignty, latency, or cost. For example, Oracle has positioned its infrastructure for the AI era. Its differentiation lies in the provision of over 200 AI and cloud services at the edge, within client data centers, and across other clouds. In this way, it enhances data privacy and low latency requirements through a distributed infrastructure.

The impact of the cloud on critical sectors: defense, finance, and digital sovereignty

The widespread adoption of cloud services has extended to strategic sectors such as defense and finance, solidifying a structural dependency on the largest providers. AWS and Microsoft Azure currently manage essential infrastructure for governments and security agencies worldwide, including the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and European ministries. These platforms host classified data and ensure critical operations, which means that, ultimately, the availability and security of national services depend on private corporations.

In the financial sector, the cloud has become the foundation of banking modernization. However, the concentration of services with just a few players introduces systemic risk: a prolonged outage or a security failure at a single provider could simultaneously affect multiple institutions and jeopardize economic stability. For example, the AWS outage affected the Mercado Pago service, a digital payments and e-wallet platform created by Mercado Libre and prominent in countries such as Argentina, causing significant disruptions to standard operations.

And, of course, these vulnerabilities are compounded by geopolitical challenges. Most leading providers are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, raising questions regarding data sovereignty and the operational resilience of other countries. In response, Europe is promoting “sovereign cloud” strategies and multi-cloud architectures to diversify risks and regain control over its critical infrastructure.

Image: Gemini