When Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft CEO in 2014, he made a strategic shift and focused on the cloud business — which was once ruled by Amazon. Over the years, Microsoft Azure — the company’s cloud computing platform has made significant strides against long-time leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). In the last one year or so, Microsoft’s growing prowess in artificial intelligence (AI has given it an edge over its biggest rival.
While AWS still holds the largest market share Microsoft Azure has been closing the gap rapidly. According to a report by CNBC, Microsoft’s revenue from Azure grew by 30% in the previous quarter. In contrast, AWS revenue grew 13% year-on-year.
Microsoft has invested heavily in developing AI solutions like Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning, and the powerful GPT-3-based language model, LaMDA. Microsoft has integrated these tools into the Azure platform, allowing developers to easily build AI-powered applications without complex integrations.
During the recent investors’ call, Nadella revealed that Microsoft has 53,000 Azure AI customers. Amazon is also focusing on AI for AWS but has been caught on the backfoot. While Amazon has its own AI offerings, it hasn’t achieved the same level of integration and adoption as Microsoft’s. Analysts are backing Microsoft Azure to see more growth in the next 12 months or so, noted the report. Amazon, meanwhile, has upped the ante and is investing heavily in AI-backed models for AWS.
Microsoft’s big bet on AI
Microsoft’s AI focus isn’t just benefiting its cloud business. It’s also propelling the company forward in other areas. The integration of GPT-3-like capabilities into Office 365 and the Bing search engine are prime examples. Microsoft Copilot is also now available on almost every device. The close relationship Microsoft has with OpenAI is certainly seemed to be paying dividends in the cloud business for Microsoft. However, it’s not so much in other businesses till now. A recent report had suggested that Bing Search’s market share hadn’t grown since ChatGPT was integrated in the search engine.
Originally Appeared Here