A cloud marketplace is a digital storefront run by AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure where companies sell software to enterprise buyers who pay using budget already committed to those cloud providers. It's like an app store where payment draws from a corporate pre-paid account rather than a separate purchase order — frictionless billing that drives AI purchases through marketplaces rather than direct contracts.

For AI companies, it's a distribution shortcut. Instead of building a global sales team, you list your model on AWS and inherit Amazon's existing customer relationships. The cloud provider handles billing and takes a cut — roughly 16 cents per dollar in Anthropic's case.

Anthropic's IPO filing revealed that 48% of its first-half 2026 revenue came through Google, Amazon, and Microsoft marketplaces, up from 11% in 2023 — while those same companies are simultaneously its investors, compute suppliers, and competitors.