AWS and Google Cloud represent fundamentally different strategies in the agent platform war. The winner depends on what enterprises value more: optionality and governance, or modelleadership and research.
Foundation Models: Marketplace vs Vertically Integrated
AWS runs a multi-model marketplace (Nova 2, Claude/Anthropic, Llama, Mistral, AI21). Google is vertically integrated around Gemini 2 with DeepMind research and in-house development. AWS bets on hedged optionality; Google bets that the best model wins the market.
Agent Infrastructure: Governance vs Capability
AgentCore is governance-first with Policy (Cedar), Guardrails, Memory, and Evaluation—an enterprisecontrol plane. Vertex AI Agents is capability-first with Grounding, Extensions, Reasoning, and Tools. AWS leads on enterprise governance maturity.
Cloud Growth: Scale vs Momentum
AWS has steady growth on a massive base: $132B annual run rate, +20% YoY. Google has rapid growth on a smaller base: $43B annual run rate, +34% YoY—the fastest growing hyperscaler. Google has growth momentum (34% vs 20%), but AWS is 3x larger.
Consumer AI Presence
AWS leverages commerce + voice: Rufus (250M users) and Alexa+ (500M devices). Google leverages Android + search: Gemini across Search, Gmail, YouTube, Docs, with Android reaching 3B+ active devices. AWS has purchase intent (monetizable); Google has reach (broader distribution).
The bottom line: AWS bets on optionality + governance. Google bets on model leadership + reach. The winner depends on what enterprises value more.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
