The Fallacy of Relative Share
Market share is a zero-sum calculation in a static market, but in the hyper-expanding $400 billion cloud sector, percentage erosion is a statistical illusion. AWS’s reported 29-30% market share - down from its 32-34% historical peak - ignores the fact that it added nearly $7 billion in new quarterly revenue year-over-year in Q4 2025 . To put this in perspective, Google Cloud’s entire revenue base for the same quarter was only $17.7 billion. Mathematically, AWS is currently adding the equivalent of a mid-sized competitor to its top line every single year.
Backlog as a Strategic Shield
A secondary layer of AWS’s dominance is revealed through its massive $244 billion backlog, which grew 40% year-over-year in late 2025. This figure represents “locked-in” future revenue that exceeds the current total annual sales of almost any other software entity. While Google Cloud has closed the gap with a $240 billion backlog, AWS’s ability to maintain a superior backlog despite its much larger revenue base demonstrates a scale-efficiency that defies the narrative of a “losing” incumbent .
Incremental Capacity Supremacy
In the final reporting period of 2025, AWS added $2.6 billion in new revenue sequentially. This absolute gain was higher than the sequential gains of its faster-growing rivals, proving that the incumbent is still capturing the largest share of new market demand in dollar terms. The scale of AWS is such that a 24% growth rate on a $142 billion run rate produces more economic value than a 48% growth rate on a smaller base.