Ep 88 - Cloud CAPEX: Not for the faint of wallet (Charles Fitzgerald)
Following the hyperscalers' CAPEX spending is a great way to get a sense of their strategic plans and priorities. Charles Fitzgerald from Platformonomics offers insights into the Big 3's 2023 investments.
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Show Notes
If you’re partnering with one or more of the hyperscalers, their roadmap is your roadmap. It’s important to know where they’re steering their ships, and a great way to gain insight into this is to follow their CAPEX spending.
For this episode, I talk with Charles Fitzgerald, managing director at Platformonomics. His annual Follow the CAPEX report tracks spending by the Big 3 hyperscalers—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud—and includes crystal-ball insights into their strategic plans and priorities. Listen now to hear:
- How the hyperscalers spent money in 2023 and how their paths are diverging [02:10];
- How AI strategy is affecting CAPEX spending [05:47];
- The last word on whether cloud repatriation is really a trend [11:36]; and
- Why it’s time for "clown providers" like IBM and Oracle to ante up or get out of the big top [16:59].
Links and Resources
- Read Charles Fitzgerald’s 2023 retrospective on public cloud CapEx spending and check out his Q1 2023 Repatriation IndexTM
- Take a look at TelcoDR’s Hyperscaler Region Tracker to see where the three “BIGS” have been putting their regions.
- Check out this Bloomberg article about Amazon’s AI-focused data center investments, which includes quotes from Charles.
- Charles is all about following the money—great inspiration for a $-inspired playlist:
- Money by Pink Floyd
- Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles
- Money, Money, Money by ABBA
- Money for Nothing by Dire Straits
- She Works Hard for the Money by Donna Summer
- I can’t wait to pounce on telco execs while I’m in Diani Beach, Kenya, just like my favorite Winnie-the-Pooh character Tigger would do.
- Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
- You can find the transcript for this episode here.
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This week’s guest
About Charles Fitzgerald
Charles Fitzgerald is a Seattle-based angel investor, with a focus on developer platforms and infrastructure. Previously, he spent 20+ years working on platform businesses at Microsoft and VMware. He can see the cloud from his house.
Podcast Credits
- Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios Royston, TelcoDR
- Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
- Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
- Editing: Andrew Condell
- Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
- Music: Dyami Wilson
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