Amazon Could Reportedly Sign Billion Dollar Microsoft 365 Deal

Microsoft and Amazon may be rivals in the cloud computing space, but a new report from Business Insider today reveals that the online retailer is getting ready to sign a billion-dollar deal to use the Microsoft 365 cloud productivity suite. According to the report, Amazon, which currently uses an on-premises version of Office, is planning to start using Microsoft 365 internally as soon as November.

“The e-commerce giant has committed more than $1 billion over five years to secure more than one million Microsoft 365 license seats, according to the Microsoft document, which was reviewed by Insider,” the report reads. “Those spots are expected to be used by both Amazon corporate employees and workers in frontline roles, the person said.”

One person familiar with the negotiations told Business Insider that Amazon has been staying away from Microsoft 365 over fears of saving confidential data on a competitor’s cloud. That’s a valid concern, and the report says that Amazon wouldn’t roll out Microsoft 365 apps to all of its employees until early 2024. Moreover, Amazon would still let its employees use the company’s own tools such as WorkDocs and Chime, which are “not that popular” according to the report.

On November 1, Microsoft will also make its new Microsoft 365 Copilot available to commercial customers. The AI-powered productivity assistant will be priced at $30 per user per month, and Microsoft is currently testing it with over 600 companies via a paid early access program. However, Business Insider didn’t say if Amazon will actually pay for this extra feature.

Anyway, Amazon purchasing more than 1 million seats for Microsoft 365 would be a major win for the software giant. Back in August, Microsoft said that over 60% of the Fortune 500 use its Microsoft 365 productivity suite.