[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, the global cloud big three, delivered record growth last quarter on demand for AI infrastructure.

AWS revenue last quarter rose 39 percent from a year earlier to $46.0 billion, its steepest growth in 5 years. AWS' share of Amazon revenue rose to about 23 percent, a record high. AWS third-quarter operating profit rose 55 percent to $17.77 billion, above StreetAccount's estimate of $16.97 billion.

Microsoft said Azure cloud revenue last quarter rose 48 percent from a year earlier to $33.2 billion, topping market expectations. Analysts had forecast Azure revenue at about $32.3 billion for the quarter.

Google Cloud posted last-quarter revenue of $30.7 billion, more than doubling from a year earlier. By growth rate, it outpaced AWS and Microsoft.

In revenue terms, Google Cloud neared Azure, but Google Cloud includes Google Workspace subscription revenue in addition to infrastructure, making it difficult to compare cloud infrastructure alone, TechCrunch reported.

Google Cloud operating profit also surged to $11.1 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier. Its order backlog from customer contracts not yet booked as revenue totalled $561.0 billion.

Cloud appears to be emerging as the strongest growth engine across Amazon, Microsoft and Google's overall businesses. Azure has risen to the ranks of Microsoft's largest and fastest-growing businesses. Azure's share of Microsoft's total revenue also reached about 36 percent.

Amazon and Google are in a similar situation. In the third quarter, AWS performed strongly, while Amazon's overall results fell short of expectations. Amazon third-quarter revenue rose 12 percent from a year earlier to $201.9 billion. Net profit was $20.7 billion. Both figures were below analyst forecasts compiled by FactSet. Amazon shares fell more than 5 percent in after-hours trading on Oct. 29 local time.

Google's Google Cloud revenue more than doubled last quarter, while the growth rate of its core search advertising revenue was limited to 12 percent. Growth in Google search advertising revenue has continued to slow, from 19 percent in the first quarter and 17 percent in the second quarter.