In today's cloud services market, the arms race among major players is accelerating rapidly. Microsoft achieved its first annual revenue of over $100 billion in the just-completed fiscal year, with a year-over-year growth of 43%. However, this performance does not guarantee peace of mind, as its business growth faces challenges and is even surpassed by with an astonishing growth rate of 82%.

The reason behind this lies in the different paths both giants have chosen in terms of technical approaches and business returns. Google, with its complete ecosystem of self-developed models and chips, has significantly increased its cloud operating profit margin from 20.7% to 35.6%, doubling its profits. In contrast, Microsoft, whose Maia and Cobalt chips are still in early stages, currently relies heavily on commercial chips from NVIDIA. The reselling stack model not only thins its profit structure but also puts more pressure on its computing cost.

At the same time, Microsoft's large order backlog has drawn deep scrutiny from the market. A significant portion of its $67.8 billion in contract backlogs depends on continuous investment from a single client . This highly concentrated client structure and the cycle of capital market lending have raised concerns about potential risks in infrastructure.

Against the backdrop of intensifying industry competition, major cloud providers continue to increase their investments. How to find a balance between aggressive computing power arms race and stable financial health will become key to reshaping the future cloud landscape.