The generative-AI hype hasn’t translated to cloud sales yet, as customers don’t know if they should jump in. Microsoft is the one exception.

The promise of a generative-AI gold rush has whipped the tech sector into a frenzy of anticipation, and with the exception of Microsoft, the hype has yet to translate into revenue growth for cloud providers.

Rates of cloud-computing sales growth slowed to historical lows this year as customers slashed IT budgets. Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud provider in the world, reported a 12% year-over-year sales increase for each of the past two quarters, less than half its growth rate for the same time last year. Microsoft and Google, the next two biggest American cloud providers, also saw rates of cloud-revenue growth slow this year.