Apple’s iCloud promises secure, easy storage of all the important files on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac laptop.
But when there are too many files for Apple to handle, it turns to putting your data on another company’s cloud: Amazon.
Apple pays Amazon Web Services more than $30 million per month for cloud services in 2019, according to CNBC, which equates to $360 million every year if Apple’s spending remains consistent. Apple recently signed a $1.5 billion contract for five years with AWS, according to CNBC, meaning despite Apple’s $10 billion investment in its own data center infrastructure, it will still rely on competitors for cloud services.
The money Apple pays to AWS is still a small slice of the cloud provider’s revenue. AWS generated more than $7.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018, as Amazon’s golden arrow surpassed the famed golden arches in revenue.