Hyperscaler Backlog $2.1 Trillion Amid Innovation Boom

**Bob Evans** (0:00)
Hello, my friends, welcome back to Cloud Wars Minute. We got a new number in the Hyperscaler backlog sweepstakes, over $2 trillion now cumulatively that Google Cloud, Oracle, Microsoft, and AWS have rolled up in backlogs. That is business, fully contracted business, not yet recognized as revenue. This is a view into the future, and for them, it looks like astonishing demand. As this has come along, it's not just business as usual for all those companies and their customers and others who are tied into their, these extraordinary enterprises here, but it's also one in which we're seeing booms in innovation, not just in technology, go to market models, business models and more. And I'll touch on that in a second, but first I wanted to share some details here. And I've got a lot more about all of this on an article that I'll be posting on cloudwars.com later this morning. The implications of all this are just really astonishing right now. There's no way that these companies are going to be able to fulfill over $2 trillion in backlog and that's going up rapidly. It'll be significantly bigger and we'll have a bigger number there in several weeks after we get the two Q numbers from Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud.
So they are having to invent new ways of doing things, not just technology, but alliances along the way. That's, I think, the big part of this, not just big numbers, but big numbers driving widespread, deep and profound innovation. So, how does that 2.1 trillion break out across the four Hyperscalers? Well, for Oracle, they're leading the way. $638 billion backlog, they call it RPO, remaining performance obligation up 363 percent. Microsoft, $627 billion, up 99 percent. Google Cloud, $462 billion, up 93 percent. And AWS, $364 billion, up 49 percent. Now, isn't it telling in this extraordinary business right now that the company in distant fourth place here, AWS, saw their backlog go up almost 50 percent, $364 billion, yet they're nowhere close to what the others are doing. And I think that just again reveals the magnitude of what's happening here.
So some of this high-level innovation that's happening.
We're seeing this convergence of industries, right? The technology industry used to rely on the energy industries to supply it with the power to run data centers. Now, the demands are so extreme, the tech industry has to start getting into the energy business. Google Cloud has bought a couple of companies there. We've seen new sorts of tie-ins and partnerships, starting up nuclear reactors, some of the hyperscalers building their own. It's just a wild time right now. And I think these lines are going to blur between the tech industry and the energy industry. We're also seeing the same thing with construction. These is absolutely some of the largest facilities ever built on earth, have to be done in a short period of time to demanding specifications.
As they come along here, they're trying to then align supply and demand. So, construction, energy, technology, industry is rolling together. New business models here. Certainly, the Hyperscalers have had to have some, right? Oracle has a thing, bring your own hardware. You can lease it, you can buy it. Everybody is coming up with unique models here to solve this unprecedented demand and business challenge here. So, customers are coming up with different models now based on what's happening here and how they're going to be able to tap into this power. Utilities companies now, right?
These data centers are being built. They have to ensure that the citizens living in those areas don't see their rates go way up, protect those rates. New ways then of tying in the billing to these data centers, and that's going to have repercussions as well across other uses there. So, supply chains, how these companies working with the hyperscalers is they build out these data centers. How do you get not just the data centers built, but the second that they begin to be completed, do you get all the computers in there? Do you get the power going? You know, all of those other things that have to come up with, how do they meet local regulatory requirements? And I think at Quiet, when coming up along this, I for a long time been a huge fan of the potential of fusion energy. And this demand here and the need to meet this and the convergence of tech and energy is only going to accelerate what's going on here to get to the breakeven point with fusion energy. Got, as I said, a detailed article with much more on this later today on cloudwars.com. What an exciting time we live in. I hope we can all sit back, you know, for at least a minute, realize what's going on here in these unprecedented times and how fortunate we are to be alive and to be a part of this. Thanks for being with us here at Cloud Wars Minute. I hope you have a fantastic day.