Gen AI Re-Accelerates Cloud Market Growth

Over the past few years, as more and more IT services were moved to the cloud, the market for cloud infrastructure services grew manifold. According to Synergy Research, cloud infrastructure service revenues climbed to $330 billion last year, up steadily from less than $50 billion in 2017. And while the market's growth had gradually and naturally slowed to just below 20 percent in 2023, the rise of generative AI and the new cloud computing needs that came with it have led to a re-acceleration of growth in 2024 - which is remarkable given the market's size.

Industry revenues grew $60 billion, or 22 percent, last year, in large part due to the rise of generative AI. "Our assessment is that since ChatGPT was launched, GenAI has been responsible for at least half of the increase in cloud service revenues," John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group said. "That has come from either newly launched GenAI/GPU services or from AI-driven improvements to existing cloud services."

In terms of market share, Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure) remain the market leaders, with Amazon alone accounting for 30 percent of cloud infrastructure revenue. Considering that it's a $330-billion market, this means that Amazon's cloud arm rakes in roughly $100 billion in revenue per year. And this is high-margin revenue: In 2024, AWS generated $40 billion in operating profit, accounting for almost 60 percent of Amazon's total operating profit.