Azure Expands Lead Over AWS Among Enterprise CIOs, Q2 Survey Shows; Cloud Spending Growth Jumps to 10.1%

According to Jefferies Q2 survey of 40 U.S. enterprise CIOs, 95% expect cloud budgets to grow in 2026, pushing global cloud infrastructure spending growth to 10.1% from 9.6% in 2025. Azure's preferred-provider lead over AWS widened significantly to 27 percentage points (55% vs. 28%) from 7 points in December 2025.

Support allocation also shifted: Azure accounts for 46% of cloud spending vs. AWS's 29%, up from a 3-point gap previously. Over the next 24 months, 68% of respondents plan to increase Azure spending compared to 45% for AWS. While AWS still leads in global market share at 28% versus Azure's 21%, enterprise investment patterns increasingly favor Microsoft's platform amid AI infrastructure demand.