The Neocloud Rebellion: How Tiny Startups Are Stealing AWS's Lunch

Here’s something wild: Amazon’s cloud dominance is cracking. AWS market share just dropped to 29% (down from 35% peak in 2019), and the culprit isn’t Microsoft or Google — it’s a bunch of unknown specialists called “neoclouds.”

These scrappy upstarts are laser-focused on AI infrastructure, exactly what data centers need right now. CoreWeave, Nebius, DigitalOcean — names you probably haven’t heard of — are siphoning roughly half of all market share gains from “other” providers.

The numbers are nuts: The neocloud segment is projected to balloon from $23B this year to $180B by 2030. DigitalOcean alone is doing $230M quarterly revenue with 16% YoY growth expected through 2027.

Here’s the kicker: DigitalOcean is actually profitable. CoreWeave and Nebius are still bleeding red, but they’re moving fast. And AWS? Profit margins are starting to compress — possibly because Amazon’s forced to cut prices to compete.

This creates a real headache for Amazon’s premium stock valuation. For aggressive growth investors, this neocloud explosion could be the next big thing. Sometimes the disruption doesn’t come from deep pockets — it comes from better tech and laser focus.