Leaked Microsoft document shows Walmart's past spending on Azure cloud services

At a recent Microsoft developer conference, an unexpected leak shed light on the company's collaboration with Walmart, revealing significant financial commitments. This incident unfolded when a presentation was interrupted by employees protesting Microsoft’s dealings with the Israeli military, leading to the accidental disclosure by an executive. During a live stream, the executive shared a Teams message indicating Walmart's eagerness to utilize Microsoft's Entra Web and AI Gateway services. Walmart and Microsoft have maintained a long-term partnership, but details about their financial interactions have remained largely undisclosed. However, a newly leaked document provides a glimpse into Walmart's substantial investments in Microsoft's Azure cloud services, estimating expenditures of approximately $580 million between June 2023 and May 2024. Both companies have refrained from commenting on this revelation. The document offers a rare insight into Microsoft’s Azure financial metrics, particularly focusing on Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR). This metric evaluates the total dollar value of Azure services utilized by customers, regardless of whether they paid full price or received discounts. Walmart's monthly ACR fluctuated from nearly $50 million in July 2023 to about $45 million by May 2024, peaking at nearly $61.9 million in November 2023, coinciding with the holiday shopping season. Typically, companies do not disclose their cloud spending unless legally obligated to report multi-year commitments. In a similar context, last year, The Information reported that TikTok was investing approximately $20 million monthly on Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. The partnership between Walmart and Microsoft was formalized in 2018, when Walmart selected Azure as its preferred cloud provider, especially in light of its competition with Amazon. In 2024, the alliance was further strengthened with the introduction of a generative AI search feature powered by Azure's OpenAI services, positioning Walmart as a prominent client in the realm of generative AI. The specifics regarding the type of ACR mentioned in the leaked document remain unclear, as Microsoft employs various metrics to categorize ACR. This includes ACR with Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), which pertains to pre-committed spending resulting in discounts, and ACR with Partner Influenced Number (PIN), which captures revenue generated through partners.