What's going on?

Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet reported diverging quarterly updates late on Tuesday, but they both have one thing in common: they�re never far from regulation�

What does this mean?

Microsoft kicked things off with a clean sweep of expectation-beating results: revenue from its cloud computing business was 26% higher than the same time last year, its productivity business � think Office 365 and LinkedIn � 17% higher, and its PC business 11% higher. No such luck for Alphabet, whose overall revenue missed expectations. That, even though its advertising revenue � from platforms like Google and YouTube � was up 22% on the same time last year, and its cloud revenue up 44%. Its profit disappointed too, given how much it spent driving visitors to its sites and keeping them there. And while Alphabet tried to appease investors with a $70 billion buyback of its own shares, it didn�t work: the company�s stock initially fell 5%.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Sneaky tactics.
Microsoft and Alphabet are still numbers two and three behind Amazon in the cloud space, but Microsoft is gaining ground: it�s increased its market share by nearly 10% over the past five years, putting it at around 21% to Amazon�s 33%. Not without some allegedly underhanded tactics, mind you: there�s talk that Microsoft�s been luring customers away from rivals by charging more to run its Office applications on their cloud services. And with regulators always sniffing around the tech giants these days, analysts think this could be next on their agenda.

Zooming out: Why choose?
Boeing won�t settle for just one cloud giant, not when it can have all three: the plane manufacturer announced earlier this month that it�s hiring Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon to help revamp its tech and give its designers and developers better software to work with. It�s hoping that�ll improve quality control, as well as eliminate some of the production issues that drive up the costs of developing new aircraft.