Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester
As hyperscalers rush to differentiate AI capabilities—from custom chips to proprietary models—the unified cloud market is splintering into vertical stacks, making switching costs higher but lock-in more painful for enterprises. Technical competition is joined by geopolitical fragmentation: US-China restrictions, EU regulatory requirements, and data sovereignty demands are forcing cloud providers to build region-specific AI infrastructure, multiplying the complexity and cost of global deployments. Large enterprises can negotiate custom deals; smaller companies face a maze of incompatible platforms and pricing models.