AWS at 20: how Amazon built the cloud empire that dominates enterprise computing -- and what it needs to win the AI era

Amazon Web Services marks its 20th anniversary in 2026, having grown from the launch of S3 and EC2 in 2006 into a business generating more than $100 billion in annual revenue. While it remains the largest cloud provider by market share, Microsoft Azure has gained ground through its partnership with OpenAI, and Google Cloud has attracted AI workloads with its custom TPU chips. AWS responded by developing its own Trainium and Inferentia chips. AWS's early advantage came from launching years before competitors recognized cloud computing as a viable business model.