Amazon now commands a market cap exceeding $2.5 trillion, driven in large part by the success of its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS holds roughly 30% of the global cloud infrastructure market — more than Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud individually, and nearly matching their combined share.
But who are AWS’s biggest customers? With over 2.38 million organizations relying on AWS, the list includes industry giants and innovative startups alike. Companies that use AWS span virtually every sector, from streaming and social media to healthcare, aerospace, and financial services.
In this post, we explore the leading enterprises and companies using AWS, break down what they spend and why, and help you understand how to manage and optimize AWS spending with a cost intelligence approach. After all, you don’t want to overspend on making AWS richer while you just, well, spend.
But first, where did it all start?
The Growth Of AWS To This Point
Amazon introduced AWS in 2006 to enable businesses to access on-demand computing power, storage, and other IT resources through the Internet. Its first services were AWS Simple Storage Service (S3) and EC2, which provide storage and compute power, respectively.
As demand for cloud services grew, AWS rapidly expanded its portfolio and now offers over 200 services.
Global regions and availability zones
AWS operates in 34 global regions and has over 105 availability zones. Each AWS region consists of at least three availability zones. These zones are isolated data centers with independent power, networking, and cooling. They ensure redundancy fault tolerance and improve availability.
Geographical spread
AWS operates across six continents with data centers strategically placed to serve a global customer base. In North America, AWS has regions in the U.S. and Canada. South America is served through São Paulo, Brazil. In Europe, AWS has regions in countries like Germany and Ireland. Africa is covered by a region in Cape Town, South Africa.
AWS also serves Asia-Pacific with data centers in Australia, Japan, and Singapore. It also has an expanding presence in the Middle East, with additional regions planned across multiple continents.
Total infrastructure and compute power
AWS operates more than 900 facilities across 50 countries, making it the largest cloud infrastructure footprint in the world. Its compute power spans hundreds of thousands of instances globally.
With custom Graviton processors, GPU options for AI, and scalable infrastructure, AWS supports varied workloads — from everyday applications to high-performance computing. Its flexibility, advanced silicon, and regional spread enable rapid scaling for intensive tasks such as machine learning and large data processing.
Now, let’s look at the global leaders who trust AWS with their operations.
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AWS Customers List
Before diving into the biggest spenders, here is a broader look at well-known companies that use AWS across industries:
| Company | Industry | Region | How They Use AWS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netflix | Media & Entertainment | United States | Streaming, recommendation AI, content delivery |
| Airbnb | Travel & Hospitality | United States | Listings management, payments, personalization |
| Goldman Sachs | Financial Services | United States | Data analytics, regulatory compliance |
| NASA | Government / Aerospace | United States | Satellite data analysis, AI simulations |
| Samsung | Electronics | South Korea | IoT management, device analytics |
| Formula 1 | Automotive / Sports | United Kingdom | Real-time race analytics, fan engagement |
| Coca-Cola | Consumer Goods | United States | Supply chain optimization, marketing analytics |
| Pfizer | Life Sciences | United States | Drug research, clinical data management |
| Epic Games | Gaming | United States | Multiplayer infrastructure, real-time rendering |
| Salesforce | Software | United States | Data lake processing, scalable compute |
This is far from exhaustive. The full list of AWS customers spans over 2.38 million organizations — from Fortune 100 enterprises to fast-growing startups across every major industry.
Top AWS Customers
Here are businesses driving AWS’s success.
Netflix
With over 325 million paid subscribers worldwide and annual revenue of $45.18 billion as of FY2025, Netflix remains the most successful streaming platform and AWS’s highest-profile customer. It’s no surprise that it’s also AWS’s highest spender. Estimates suggest that the company spends hundreds of millions annually on AWS services.
What AWS services does Netflix pay for?
Netflix uses various AWS services to support its streaming operation and deliver smooth, high-quality experiences for viewers. Amazon EC2 provides the computing power behind Netflix’s essential operations. These include video processing, recommendation algorithms, and handling high traffic volumes.
Amazon S3 serves as Netflix’s main storage for its extensive media library. It ensures global accessibility and secure storage of content. Beyond S3, Netflix also uses Open Connect, a custom CDN that caches popular shows locally for faster streaming. For infrequent content, Netflix turns to Amazon Glacier for cost savings.
Amazon Kinesis processes real-time data to improve user experience. It helps Netflix personalize recommendations and optimize its platform’s performance.
Netflix also relies on AWS Lambda for serverless functions to manage backend tasks. It also leverages Amazon CloudFront to reduce streaming delays by serving content from locations.
Here is a comprehensive guide on how much Netflix spends on AWS and how it monitors and measures AWS costs.
Twitch
Amazon’s live-streaming platform, Twitch, follows Netflix as a top AWS spender. With around 35 million daily active users and millions of paid subscribers, Twitch relies on AWS’s scalability to handle real-time streaming demands.
AWS services utilized by Twitch include:
- Amazon EC2: Provides scalable compute power to manage global live streams smoothly.
- AWS Lambda: Supports serverless functions, which are essential for handling real-time interactions during streams.
- Amazon IVS (Interactive Video Service): Utilizes Twitch’s video infrastructure for low-latency, interactive video streaming.
- Amazon CloudFront: Ensures low latency and reliable content delivery.
LinkedIn is also a prominent AWS client, spending around $13 million monthly on AWS infrastructure. This substantial investment supports LinkedIn’s high-volume networking, job postings, and content-sharing needs, as the platform manages millions of user interactions daily.
LinkedIn utilizes EC2 for scalable compute resources and AWS S3 for secure data storage. It also relies on Amazon RDS for database management, AWS Lambda for serverless automation, and AWS CloudFront for efficient content delivery.
How other big names use AWS:
- Meta leverages AWS for AI research, PyTorch optimization, and third-party integrations. Platforms like Instagram also use AWS infrastructure.
- Turner Broadcasting uses AWS for streaming content and real-time data analytics, which is critical for sports and news delivery.
- X (Twitter) uses AWS for data storage, content delivery, and platform stability during high-traffic events.
- BBC relies on AWS for video streaming, content management, and secure storage for global media delivery.
- Baidu utilizes AWS for data-intensive AI, search, and autonomous driving technologies tasks.
- ESPN employs AWS for low-latency, high-definition streaming, especially live sports events.
- Adobe: AWS powers Adobe’s cloud-based creative and analytics tools, with an estimated $7.5M in monthly EC2 spend.
- NASA: AWS supports NASA’s data storage and analysis needs for space missions.
- CIA relies on AWS for secure cloud computing, focusing on data storage and analysis.
- Samsung uses AWS for IoT management, device analytics, and data-driven improvements.
- Walt Disney uses AWS to power Disney+ streaming and manage global content delivery infrastructure.
- Airbnb runs its listings, secure payments, and personalized recommendation engine on AWS.
Why enterprises use AWS
AWS’s early launch gave it a head start in refining and expanding its offerings. Its services cover everything from compute, storage, AI, machine learning, and more, with extensive integration and customization options. This maturity brings reliability that’s hard for competitors to match.
Other AWS advantages that often tip the scales for enterprises include:
- Global coverage. AWS spans more availability zones and regions than most cloud providers. This helps businesses reach users faster and keeps operations resilient.
- Robust partner network. AWS’s Marketplace and third-party integrations ensure businesses can find tailored, reliable solutions for their industry needs. The AWS Partner Network (APN) includes more than 100,000 partners based in over 150 countries.
- High compliance standards. AWS meets strict regulatory requirements like HIPAA, SOC, and PCI, with specialized options like AWS GovCloud. These support many industries, from healthcare to government and more.
- AI and machine learning capabilities. Services like Amazon SageMaker, Bedrock, and Rekognition give enterprises access to advanced AI/ML tooling without building from scratch — a major draw as organizations accelerate AI adoption.
What’s Next: How To Control, Manage, And Optimize AWS Costs
AWS has become a favorite among organizations for its flexibility and scalability. Yet, it is also a budgeting headache for most.
This pain point is so common that many companies struggle to forecast and control their cloud budgets due to insufficient cost visibility, with nearly half of organizations citing rising cloud costs as their top management challenge.
AWS does provide cost management tools such as Cost Explorer and Budgets, which help identify usage patterns and set alerts. However, these tools often fall short in larger, complex environments. This limitation often leads to cloud waste, where resources like unused instances continue to rack up costs.
As a result, many organizations turn to third-party tools for improved visibility and control over cloud spending.
Enter CloudZero
Most traditional AWS cost optimization tools focus on reducing waste and purchasing savings plans. CloudZero is different. It gives engineering teams real-time cost data, enabling them to make smart, profitable decisions.
CloudZero provides the tools engineers need to understand the direct cost impact of their work. Engineering teams can see how their code changes affect AWS costs. They can also link these costs to business metrics, like COGS and cost per customer. This visibility enables teams to make data-driven choices that align cloud spending with overall business.
CloudZero also:
- Automatically detects unusual spend events in real-time, notifying relevant teams to prevent budget surprises and overspending.
- Tracks cost down to the customer level. This enables companies to understand and control the cost-to-revenue balance for each client.
- Integrates with Kubernetes, providing precise cost allocation within clusters. CloudZero ensures accurate billing even for complex containerized environments.
- It ingests data from multiple cloud providers and services and consolidates all spending data into one dashboard for unified cost tracking.
- Supports custom budget creation for any business unit.
- It gives regular budget updates to engineering and finance. This fosters cost awareness and timely adjustments.
- Uses historical data and current trends to predict future cloud costs.
- Breaks costs into fine details such as cost per product feature, team, customer, and more.
to see CloudZero in action.
Software and pricing information last verified June 2026. Features, pricing, and availability may have changed. Please verify current details with vendors before making decisions.
