The European Commission fired a clear warning shot across the bow of cloud computing’s biggest players on June 25, 2026, announcing that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The conclusion, reached after a seven-month investigation, thrusts cloud infrastructure into the regulatory spotlight just as artificial intelligence leans ever more heavily on these platforms. If finalized, the move would subject two of the world’s most dominant cloud providers to a suite of pro-competition obligations designed to crack open a market long criticized for lock-in and opaque practices.
For AWS and Azure, the designation would mark a significant escalation. Both parent companies already appear on the DMA’s gatekeeper list for other core platform services — Amazon for its marketplace and advertising, Microsoft for Windows, LinkedIn, and the online search engine Bing with related services. But cloud computing has, until now, remained outside the Commission’s formal gatekeeping perimeter. With the explosion of generative AI, which demands immense computational scale, Brussels is signaling that control over cloud infrastructure is tantamount to control over the AI future.
The DMA’s Gatekeeper Framework
The Digital Markets Act, fully in force since 2024, targets large digital platforms that act as critical gateways between businesses and consumers. To qualify, a company must have a strong economic position, significant impact on the internal market, and be active in multiple EU countries; it must also have a strong intermediation position, linking a large user base to a large number of businesses; and it must enjoy an entrenched and durable market position. Quantitative thresholds include an annual EU turnover of at least €7.5 billion, a market capitalisation of at least €75 billion, and at least 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly active business users in the EU.
Once designated for a specific core platform service, gatekeepers must comply with a detailed list of do’s and don’ts. They must allow business users to access data they generate on the platform, let users uninstall pre-installed software, and provide interoperability and portability between services. They cannot favour their own products over rivals in rankings, combine personal data across services without consent, or prevent users from linking to businesses outside the platform. Non-compliance risks fines of up to 10% of worldwide annual turnover, rising to 20% for repeat infringements.
Cloud’s Crucial Role in the AI Value Chain
The Commission’s focus on cloud infrastructure is no accident. Modern AI development — from training foundational models to deploying inference — is almost entirely dependent on the hyperscale compute, storage, and networking that only a handful of providers can supply. AWS and Azure together command more than 50% of the global cloud market, and their share is even more pronounced in the EU. For AI startups and scale-ups, the choice of cloud is often a forced one: switch at your peril, given the technical and financial hurdles of multi-cloud or migration.
Cloud providers have increasingly integrated higher-level AI services directly into their platforms — from machine learning tools to proprietary models available only through their APIs. This vertical integration raises gatekeeper concerns: a cloud provider that also offers AI services could give preferential treatment to its own offerings, limit interoperability with third-party models, or use its visibility into customer workloads to gain an unfair advantage. The DMA investigation squarely takes aim at such dynamics.
Seven Months of Probing: What the Commission Found
The inquiry, launched in late 2025, examined whether AWS and Azure constitute important gateways for business users to reach end users in sectors that now rely on cloud computing. The Commission gathered evidence from competitors, customers, and industry experts. Smaller European cloud providers — such as OVHcloud, Scaleway, and Deutsche Telekom — have long complained about unfair software licensing practices, particularly by Microsoft, and about the technical and contractual barriers to switching.
While the Commission’s notice is technically a preliminary finding, the language leaves little room for interpretation. The statement noted that AWS and Azure “should be designated” for cloud infrastructure services, suggesting that the evidentiary bar has been met. The investigation confirmed that both platforms exceed the quantitative thresholds and, crucially, that they serve as essential conduits for businesses seeking to deploy digital services — including AI — across the single market.
What the Designation Means for AWS and Azure
If the designation is finalised — and the companies can contest it, though success is unlikely — both will have six months to comply with the DMA’s obligations. For cloud infrastructure, the most disruptive requirement could be mandated interoperability. Gatekeepers may be forced to provide open APIs, common data formats, and standardised migration tools so that customers can seamlessly move workloads between clouds or adopt multi-cloud strategies.
Equally impactful is the prohibition on self-preferencing. This could bar AWS from ranking its own AI services higher on the AWS Marketplace, or prevent Microsoft from bundling Azure with its own productivity and security tools in ways that disadvantage rivals. Rules on data portability and data access would give customers the right to extract their data — including metadata and usage logs — in a machine-readable format, reducing the stickiness of cloud platforms.
Perhaps most significantly, the gatekeeper label could force a decoupling of cloud services from adjacent platform services. For example, Microsoft might be required to offer Azure without tying it to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem or its proprietary development tools, while Amazon could be prohibited from using its dominance in e-commerce or advertising to steer enterprises toward AWS.
Reactions from Industry and Regulators
Neither Amazon nor Microsoft responded immediately to the Commission’s statement, but past behaviour suggests they will push back. Microsoft, already a designated gatekeeper, has previously emphasised that it supports the DMA’s goals and has made changes to Windows and LinkedIn. However, the company has also lobbied intensively against expanding the act to cloud and AI, arguing that the market is highly competitive and that customers benefit from integrated solutions.
EU Competition Commissioner — the current mandate holder was appointed in 2025 — underscored that “access to cloud infrastructure is no longer a back-office concern; it is the bedrock of Europe’s digital sovereignty and its AI ambitions.” The statement also nods to parallel regulatory developments, including the EU’s AI Act, which classifies certain AI uses as high-risk, and the Data Act, which already imposes some switching requirements on cloud providers. The DMA designation would add an extra, muscular layer of enforcement.
Analysts at major research firms called the move “inevitable” and “a logical extension of the DMA.” They noted that while cloud-specific obligations will create compliance headaches for AWS and Azure, the bigger impact may be on how AI platforms are built and monetised. “If cloud gateways are forced open, we could see a new wave of independent AI services running on interoperable infrastructure,” said a Gartner analyst in a note to clients. “That would reshape the competitive landscape far beyond Europe.”
Broader Implications for AI and Competition
The DMA’s incursion into cloud infrastructure could accelerate the fragmentation of the AI stack. Startups that previously feared lock-in may now invest in multi-cloud architectures from day one, knowing that portability is legally guaranteed. Open-source AI models, such as large language models that can be deployed on any compliant cloud, could gain a stronger footing against platform-exclusive offerings.
Yet some caution that onerous rules could slow down innovation. Hyperscalers invest billions in custom silicon, power-efficient data centres, and optimised software stacks. If they must expose those innovations to competitors through mandatory APIs, the return on those investments might decline, potentially chilling capital expenditure. The Commission is mindful of this tension and has calibrated the DMA to allow gatekeepers to argue that specific obligations threaten the viability of their platform, though the bar for such a defence is high.
The timing is critical. As European enterprises ramp up AI adoption, the availability of diverse, competitive cloud options matters enormously. A gatekeeper designation could discourage Amazon and Microsoft from using their cloud dominance to steer AI customers toward their own models or development frameworks. At the same time, it could give European cloud challengers a better shot at winning workloads that require data residency, local support, or specialised compliance — all strengths of regional players.
What Happens Next?
The June 25 notice begins a formal process. AWS and Microsoft now have the opportunity to respond in writing and at a hearing before a final decision is adopted, likely in late 2026 or early 2027. If the Commission proceeds — and precedent suggests it will — the designation will be published, triggering the six-month compliance countdown.
In parallel, the Commission may launch specific investigations into cloud-related practices that could violate the DMA ahead of the compliance deadline. For example, it could probe whether Microsoft’s software licensing rules, which critics say make it more expensive to run Windows Server or SQL Server on non-Azure clouds, amount to unfair self-preferencing. Similarly, it could examine whether AWS Marketplace favours Amazon’s own AI services over independent alternatives.
For Windows-centric businesses already navigating Microsoft’s DMA compliance for the desktop, this cloud expansion adds another variable. IT teams should watch closely, as portability mandates might eventually ease hybrid deployments and multi-cloud management that many have long desired.
A Watershed Moment for Cloud and AI Governance
The European Commission’s move is more than a regulatory milestone; it is a bet that open, interoperable infrastructure will foster a healthier AI ecosystem. By classifying cloud computing as a core platform service under the DMA, Brussels is asserting that the digital supply chain for AI must be governed with the same rigour as search engines, social networks, and app stores.
Whether this leads to meaningful change or merely a compliance layer atop business as usual remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the era of cloud self-regulation is over. For AWS and Azure, the gatekeeper label is no longer hypothetical — it is a near-certainty that will redraw the competitive playbook for years to come.