With Q2 results looming, Palantir is the world’s fastest-growing major cloud and AI vendor with an 85% rate, Google Cloud is second at 63%, and Oracle is third at 47%.
While six of the Cloud Wars Top 10 companies will be releasing calendar-Q2 numbers over the next few weeks, I wanted to offer this snapshot of how these 10 world-shaping companies stack up as the AI Revolution cranks up the intensity in the greatest growth market the world has ever known.
A few thoughts on the companies and their growth rates before showing the most-recent growth and revenue numbers for each:
- Some know-it-alls are pooh-poohing Palantir’s 85% growth rate because of its relatively small size, with Q1 revenue of “only” $1.63 billion. Simply put, that is an intellectually bankrupt argument trying to pose as one that’s super-sophisticated and therefore out of the grasp of most of the ho-hum people.
- We’ve also got some ankle-biters trying to downplay Google Cloud’s 63% growth rate — and don’t forget that’s up from a whopping 48% in the previous quarter — because Microsoft Cloud revenue is almost 3X that of Google Cloud’s, and AWS revenue is almost 2X bigger. To those fanboys and fangirls of yesterday’s cloud leader, I would ask them how they think Amazon CEO Andy Jassy feels about Google Cloud thrashing AWS in revenue-growth rate 63% to 28%; total backlog $462 billion vs. $364 billion; and backlog growth rate of 93% vs. 49%. And if you think Andy Jassy is not fuming about those numbers, you’re probably in need of a few months’ vacation.
- While revenue growth reflects the recent past, backlog/RPO and their growth rates give us a window into the future. And, in a wildly counterintuitive data point, the backlog leader among the four hyperscalers is *not* Microsoft with its jumbo quarterly cloud revenue of $54.5 billion, but rather the smallest of the crowd: Oracle, with $9.9 billion in cloud revenue for the quarter ended May 31. Check out these numbers from my recent analysis headlined Explosive AI Demand Pushes Hyperscaler Backlog to $2.1 Trillion:
(Source: Cloud Wars, June 22)
Community Summit North America is the largest independent innovation, education, and training event for Microsoft business applications delivered by Expert Users, Microsoft Leaders, MVPs, and Partners. Register now to attend Community Summit in Nashville, TN from October 11-15.
Against that broad backdrop, here’s the latest Cloud Wars Growth Chart, and I’ll be updating it in early August as calendar-Q2 results are released by Palantir, Google Cloud, Microsoft, AWS, SAP, and ServiceNow.
Two other quick notes:
- As you’ll see, at least seven, and probably eight, of the Top 10 are growing at 22% or better; and
- For OpenAI, I can only offer estimates as the company is not (yet) publicly traded and does not release financial details.
| Rank | Company | Latest Qtr Growth Rate | Quarterly Cloud Revenue | Quarter End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palantir | 85% | $1.63B | March 31 |
| 2 | Google Cloud | 63% | $20.0B | March 31 |
| 3 | Oracle | 47% | $9.9B | May 31 |
| 4 | Microsoft | 29% | $54.5B | March 31 |
| 5 | AWS | 28% | $37.6B | March 31 |
| 6 | SAP | 27% | $7.0B | March 31 |
| 7 | ServiceNow | 22% | $3.67B | March 31 |
| 8 | Workday | 14% | $2.4B | April 30 |
| 9 | Salesforce | 13% | $11.1B | April 30 |
| 10 | OpenAI | Estimated 60% | ~$5.0B (estimated) | Not public |
Final Thought
I promise you that I do not toss around lightly the phrase “the greatest growth market the world has ever known.” And despite the stunning magnitude of these numbers — look again at that backlog chart of fully committed and contracted business! — we would all do well to take a moment now and then to consider that while the economies of other planets might have some industries that outdo this one, we here on Earth have never seen its like.
Enjoy the ride, my friends!
