Amazon, Microsoft invest billions as computing shifts to cloud | The Seattle Times

Don't expect massive profits when Amazon announces its latest quarterly results this afternoon

"But Amazon’s profits are increasingly dictated by cloud computing. So are its investments.

Since 2010, the money it spends in technology and content has expanded sevenfold, to $12.5 billion last year. That’s a category that includes the cost of the equipment and salaries that underpin Amazon Web Services, its 10-year old cloud-computing unit. Amazon acknowledges in its annual report that infrastructure related to AWS has been a primary driver of spending in this segment.

It’s a dramatic rise — the kind of money usually spent by the capital-intensive heavyweights that manufacture cars, start up remote mining facilities or drill oil wells a mile below sea level."

Amazon, Microsoft invest billions as computing shifts to cloud | The Seattle Times