Microsoft’s tie-up with Truveta could help it plant deeper roots in healthcare: Big Tech companies have had a hard time penetrating healthcare due to a lack of trust, but exclusive access to Truveta’s database backed by 17 prominent health systems could change that for Microsoft.

If the NSA-AWS deal succeeds, it could make AWS the US government’s preferred cloud provider. But if Microsoft succeeds, the government cloud space might go right back to where it started.

The “metaverse” has become one of the hottest topics among marketers globally, especially after some major investments into the hardware and software segments by Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. And in China, tech companies are already staking their claim in the trend.

Visa invested an undisclosed amount into biometric authentication startup LoginID and Amex linked its fraud detection system with platforms from Accertify, Microsoft, and Riskified.

On today's episode, we discuss why paid newsletter subscriptions are having a moment, the competitive advantages of the biggest players, and why marketers should (or shouldn't) get involved. We then talk about HBO Max's upcoming ad-supported offering, whether Microsoft buying Discord makes sense, and the real problem with password sharing. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analyst at Insider Intelligence Nina Goetzen.

Microsoft is in talks to acquire the popular chat platform, part of a greater focus by Microsoft on social media.

The news: Top executives from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM met with US President Joe Biden this week to discuss ways the private sector can work alongside the government to bolster national cybersecurity amid a rash of ransomware attacks affecting critical infrastructure, per The Wall Street Journal.

The news: The newly released Microsoft Windows 11 OS was barely mentioned at Canalys Forum, a conference of the leading PC-makers, vendors and resellers, per The Register.

It remains to be seen whether any EU agencies will take similar action against Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft as a result of LQDN’s complaints—but it took three years for the Amazon ruling, so they’re not out of the woods just yet. Meanwhile, antitrust cases against Amazon are also brewing in other countries, like the US and Australia.

Though AWS created and dominated the market, Microsoft, Google, and now Alibaba are catching up. Canalys estimates AWS owns a 32% share of the market for cloud infrastructure services spending worldwide, followed by Microsoft Azure (19%) and Google Cloud (7%), as of Q1 2021.

This partnership arrived as sizable health systems were tying up with cloud giants to improve data sharing beyond hospital walls: Providence leverages Microsoft Cloud to enhance the access and exchange of EHR data between healthcare providers and health plans, for example.

Microsoft has previously taken the same cloud-based approach to its Office 365 productivity suite, used by more than 1 million companies worldwide, and seems confident it can do the same for Windows. What’s the catch?

Microsoft recently won a $21.9 billion contract to develop military AR headsets. How we got here: JEDI is a Trump-era cloud computing defense contract initially worth up to $10 billion over a decade. Microsoft and Amazon were the last two vendors standing in a long and protracted bidding war which, in the end, leaned in Microsoft’s favor.