Google Cloud

Google Cloud's media industry push crystallised at NAB Show 2026 with a multi-year strategic partnership embedding its Gemini models and Vertex AI directly into Avid Media Composer, the dominant non-linear editor used across professional broadcast globally. The integration follows a template visible across Google Cloud's sector strategy: embed at the dominant installed-base platform to reach enterprise customers who would not otherwise procure from a hyperscaler directly. At Google I/O 2026 in May, Google extended the same reach into creative tooling, making Adobe's 50+ Creative Cloud tools and Canva callable inside Gemini via the Connected Apps framework. This positions Google Cloud in direct opposition to the SMART STORIES open-standard consortium, which nine broadcasters (including ITN, BBC and Sky) are backing to avoid the vendor lock-in that the Avid partnership exemplifies.

Google Cloud is the cloud computing division of Alphabet Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It holds approximately 11% of global cloud infrastructure market share and competes primarily with AWS and Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud's AI products include the Gemini large-language model family and the Vertex AI managed ML platform. In the European Union, Google Cloud is subject to gatekeeper obligations under the Digital Markets Act and has faced exclusion from sovereign cloud procurement frameworks. A preliminary DMA search-data sharing order is due to become binding on 27 July 2026.

Google Cloud is among the three US hyperscalers named in the leaked CAIDA scope, which bars US cloud providers from processing financial, judicial and health data for EU public-sector clients. The US USTR filed a Section 301 complaint characterising DMA cloud rules as Economic warfare against US companies. European rivals (OVHcloud, Hetzner, Scaleway) view the €180m sovereign procurement template as the first institutionalised floor for European-only cloud spend.