Amazon and Microsoft’s AI Gains Mask Cloud Slowdown
- Investors are bracing for slowing growth in cloud businesses
- The units are critical for the performance of both stocks
An Amazon fulfillment center in North Carolina.
Photographer: Rachel Jessen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The buzz around artificial intelligence that’s helped juice gains for Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. this year may also be masking struggles in a business far more critical to the pair’s bottom lines.
Once-booming demand for cloud-computing services is slowing as businesses rein in spending amid economic uncertainty. And when Microsoft and Amazon report results next week, analysts anticipate the slowest revenue growth for their cloud-computing businesses since the firms started breaking out performance last decade.