Like Azure last week, AWS reported some slippage in its cloud earnings growth numbers today, dropping from 49% growth last year at this time to 37% this year. Total revenue increased from Q2 last year, from $6.105 billion to $8.381 billion this year. Today’s report puts the company on an astonishing run rate of more than $33 billion — just for AWS. That’s a successful company, never mind one that’s a division of a larger organization.
And Amazon has to be thrilled that it is, as AWS accounted for 13% of the company’s total income this quarter as it continues to help lead the way for the online retailer. All of that is mostly good news by most measures, but the slowing growth in a market that is continuing to accelerate is curious for both Microsoft and Amazon, as both companies continue to dominate the cloud infrastructure market.
Amazon controls approximately 33% of the market, while Microsoft accounts for around 16%. Regardless of whose numbers you look at, AWS has approximately double the market share of Microsoft, but Microsoft remains the only company with double-digit market share up until this point.
The drop by both companies could simply be attributed to the law of large numbers, which says as big as these two companies are, sustaining the kind of growth rates they were on becomes increasingly difficult over time, even in an accelerating market.
“What we are seeing is the law of large numbers where the revenue gets so high, the growth percent gain gets harder. AWS’s dollar gain is still larger than the number 2-5 [rivals] combined,” Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told TechCrunch.
As markets mature, growth just naturally slows down, and Amazon couldn’t maintain growth in the 40s forever no matter how hot the market is. Regardless, the revenue remains impressive and AWS continues to help drive Amazon’s success.
Source: TechCrunch
Elon Musk’s SpaceX managed to pull off something very few people thought it could — by disrupting one of the most fixed markets in the world with some of the most entrenched and protected players ever to benefit from government contract arrangements: rocket launches. The success of SpaceX, and promising progress from other new launch providers, including Blue Origin and Rocket Lab, have encouraged interest in space-based innovation among entrepreneurs and investors alike. But is this a true boom, or just a blip?
There’s an argument for both at once, with one type of space startup rapidly descending to Earth in terms of commercialization timelines and potential upside, and the other remaining a difficult bet to make unless you’re comfortable with long timelines before any liquidity event and a lot of upfront investment.
Image via Getty Images / Andrey Suslov
There’s no question that one broad category of technology at least is a lot more addressable by early-stage companies (and by extension, traditional VC investment). The word “satellite” once described almost exclusively gigantic, extremely expensive hunks of sophisticated hardware, wherein each component would eat up the monthly burn rate of your average early-stage consumer tech venture.
Source: TechCrunch
Elon Musk’s tunneling and transportation startup The Boring Company has raised its first outside investment through the sale of $120 million in stock, according to a securities filing.
The details of authorized sale of stock were first reported by Bloomberg News, which reviewed the filing obtained by Prime Unicorn Index.
Steve Jurvetson, a longtime friend, adviser and early backer of Musk’s other companies SpaceX and Tesla, has invested in The Boring Company (TBC).
The investment comes just two months since the The Boring Company landed a $48.7 million commercial contract to build and operate an underground “people mover� in Las Vegas. After receiving approval from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, TBC secured the contract in May to build an underground loop system that shuttles people.
The initial design for the project, dubbed Campus Wide People Mover, or CWPM, will focus on the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is currently in the midst of an expansion that is expected to be completed in time for CES 2021. The newly expanded Las Vegas Convention Center will span about 200 acres once completed. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) estimates that people walking the facility would travel two miles from one end to the other, a distance that prompted officials to find a transportation solution.
Since landing the contract in Las Vegas, TBC has ramped up its hiring as it starts to scale up and move beyond the status of a Musk pet project. (TBC hasn’t publicized how many people it employs; estimates from various sources put it at more than 80 people, although there’s evidence of overlap between SpaceX and TBC.)
TBC previously raised nearly $113 million last year.
Source: TechCrunch
Omar Martinez’s photograph captures the liminal space of migrants at the border, perpetually unsure of their fate.
Source: Wired
Backed by a robust set of features, you can count on the Epson WorkForce Wireless Wide-Format Color Inkjet Printer to print, copy, and scan wide-format pages in high quality. Get one for your home or office for only $171.
Source: Digital trends
A new report has revealed that almost a third of U.S. households don’t have access to broadband internet, considered to be a minimum of 25Mbps or greater. But 5G could help bring broadband to underserved communities.
Source: Digital trends
WIRED asked the Duffer Brothers to break down their inspirations. From ‘Alien’ to ‘The Thing,’ did you catch all of these?
Source: Wired
In a special extraterrestrial edition of WIRED’s Tech Support series, the legendary SETI astronomer takes questions from Twitter.
Source: Wired
An all-new MacBook Pro is on the horizon, with Apple said to equip its new laptop with a 16-inch display and powerful processors. We’ve got everything you need to know here, from price and performance to release date and rumors.
Source: Digital trends
Microsoft’s Surface Pro is stunningly well designed and powerful portable computer that rival Apple’s MacBook. You can get this laptop/tablet hybrid at an incredible 27% less on Amazon for $580.
Source: Digital trends