Cloud spending soars as hyperscalers up AI investment - and could reach a landmark high in 2026

Date:
Mon, 30 Mar 2026 11:20:00 +0000

Description:
The global cloud market was worth around $400 billion in 2025, but 2026 could be the year it hits $500 billion.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The global cloud market has been growing by 20% or more for six consecutive quarters 2025 cloud spend was around $400 billion, led by three global hyperscalers Omdia predicts a further 27% growth in 2026 as demand continues New figures have claimed global cloud spend in
the final three months of 2025 rose 29% year-over-year to $110.9 billion, making it the sixth consecutive quarter not just of any growth, but of 20%-or-higher growth.

Omdia, the company behind the data , explained AI's shift from
experimentation to production deployment is to blame for the huge growth,
with spend expanding far beyond the already-high demand for CPUs and GPUs to storage and networking too. Though the company has not explicitly published data for the second quarter, quarterly revenue of $90.9 billion in Q1 2025
and $102.6 billion in Q3 suggests full-year cloud spend fell into the $400 billion region in calendar 2025. Article continues below You may like Europe is going all-in on sovereign cloud investment to triple by 2027 IT spending set to hit $1.4 trillion in 2026 - but what exactly are we spending it on? AI workloads are increasing wasted cloud spend for the first time in 5 years
but AI governance teams might be a solution Global cloud market keeps on growing But as for the individual companies that make up the market, nothing has changed with three leading hyperscalers remaining unbeatable. AWS continues to account for around one-third (32%) of the market, with Microsoft Azure (22% share) and Google Cloud (12% share) following in second and third place.

Though Google trails far behind its competition, its 50% growth is far bigger than those of Azure (39%) and AWS (24%). Google is the third of three $3 billion companies, behind Apple and Nvidia .

"As AI continues to raise infrastructure requirements while constraints remain, vendors that can expand in a more targeted and efficient way will be best positioned to lead in the next phase of competition," Senior Director Rachel Brindley wrote about the months that lay ahead.

Omdia also noted that AWS ended the quarter with a $244 billion backlog and Google Cloud with a $240 billion backlog (up from $157.7 billion in just
three months), indicating sustained demand. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me
with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Looking ahead, Omdia is predicting a further 27% growth in cloud infrastructure spending in 2026, bringing total yearly spend into the $500 billion region. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/cloud-spending-soars-as-hyperscalers-up-ai-inves tment-and-could-reach-a-landmark-high-in-2026


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