Recently, the four major technology giants in the United States have successively released their latest quarterly reports. It can be seen from the quarterly reports that actively responding to transformation is the core of future development. Amazon and Microsoft's core strategy for future development lies in cloud + AI, which has made the market value of the two giants exceed one trillion US dollars. As of May 3, their market values were 966.2 billion US dollars and 987.7 billion US dollars, respectively. Amazon in particular rose 3.24% with the purchase of Warren Buffett.
Since Buffett continued to increase his holdings in Apple, it has become the hottest target in the past few years, and he has firmly held Apple because Buffett is satisfied with Apple's latest earnings report. As of the end of 2018, the stock god held 249.6 million shares of Apple, with a market value of over US$50 billion. At the same time, Apple's market value reached 1.12 trillion US dollars, which is the highest record holder so far. Just recently, Buffett said that his Berkshire Hathaway has been buying Amazon shares. Influenced by this news, Amazon opened 2.5% higher, with a market value of over US$960 billion, just one step away from a trillion-dollar market value.
It is worth mentioning that after Microsoft recently released its quarterly report, its market value also exceeded one trillion US dollars, making it the third technology company to enter the trillion-dollar club so far. The above three giants are highly sought after by Wall Street, and the core reason is that they have taken a big step in transformation. Apple hopes to break away from its dependence on the iPhone and actively transform itself into a service business centered on subscription, payment and iCloud. In the latest quarter, revenue from services accounted for nearly 20% of total revenue, and iPhone revenue accounted for 53% of total revenue. Wall Street is full of confidence in Apple's transformation.
Amazon and Microsoft have benefited from the successful cloud + AI transformation, with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure accounting for nearly half of the global shared cloud market. Only Google is still deeply trapped in its original business model and is highly dependent on advertising, but its growth rate has begun to slow down, causing its market value to plummet. After the release of Google's latest quarterly report, its stock price fell from $1,287.58 to $1,162.61, a 10% drop in three trading days, with a market value of $86.7 billion (RMB 583.8 billion) evaporating.
In my opinion, Google is getting further and further away from a trillion-dollar market value. Google, which is in deep advertising trouble, has shrunk by nearly 600 billion yuan in just a few days. Therefore, technology companies that actively transform for the future will be the biggest winners and will also be favored by Wall Street. Apple and Amazon are the best examples.
Today, Amazon's businesses beyond e-commerce have been developing rapidly due to its investment in cutting-edge technologies such as cloud and AI over the years. In particular, AWS cloud service has pioneered the cloud computing era and is also a business miracle. It occupies the vast majority of the global market and has long been the leader in the cloud service field. AWS has millions of customers, including Apple, which pays $30 million per month, with an annual expenditure of up to $360 million, and has spent at least $1.5 billion on AWS in five years.
More and more customers are promising to use Amazon cloud services in the future. As of the end of 2018, the contract value of AWS was US$19.3 billion. Its position in the global cloud market is unshakable, and it has helped AWS maintain its rapid growth. In the first quarter of 2018, AWS cloud services grew 41% year-on-year to US$7.7 billion (RMB 52 billion), which is also the core source of Amazon's profits.
In the view of Yang Jianyong, senior consultant of Internet of Things, the competition landscape of the global cloud service market is that Amazon is like a mountain, which is beyond the reach of most competitors. If AWS is compared to a towering tree, then other competitors are more like small saplings, and the revenue scale of AWS is out of reach for them. Amazon dominates the global cloud service market, making it the world's most investment-worthy technology company. With the support of the stock god, its market value is expected to exceed one trillion US dollars again. As of May 3, its market value was 966.2 billion US dollars.
In addition, Amazon is also constantly gaining ground in the smart home field, using the Echo/Alexa model to bring smart life into tens of millions of American households. So far, the shipments of smart devices equipped with the AI assistant Alexa have exceeded 100 million units, and the cumulative shipments of its series of smart speakers have exceeded 50 million units. Because Amazon has adopted a more open strategy in voice technology, it has more than 50,000 skills and Alexa has been connected to more than 20,000 devices. In the smart home field, Amazon Alexa is undoubtedly the most popular AI assistant. Major device manufacturers around the world have embedded or supported the Amazon Alexa assistant, making it a benchmark in the global smart home market.
Finally, artificial intelligence is seen as an important direction for future technological development, especially the integration of AI+IoT will further activate the huge market. Amazon and Microsoft are favored by Wall Street in the capital market with cloud, IoT and AI, and will be one of the biggest winners of this era. In addition, huge bets from giants including Google, Huawei and BAT have also made industry competition extremely fierce, but the entire industry is showing a booming development trend.
