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Why Biden’s 2023 AI Order Could Have Benefited Amazon and Microsoft

By TheFinanceBase Team7 min read
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Yes—but only as a potential, indirect benefit. President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14110, signed on October 30, 2023, could have increased demand for secure cloud computing, AI testing, cybersecurity, compliance tools, and government AI services. That positioned Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure to compete for additional spending.

There is an important current-status qualification: President Donald Trump rescinded the order on January 20, 2025. It is therefore best understood as a historical policy opportunity and as an explanation of why government-ready AI infrastructure became strategically important—not as a current federal mandate or guaranteed source of revenue.

Which executive order are we talking about?

The headline refers to Executive Order 14110, “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence”. It was published in the Federal Register on November 1, 2023.

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This was not a simple subsidy for cloud companies or a complete AI law. It directed federal agencies to act within existing legal authority across several areas, including AI safety, national security, cybersecurity, privacy, civil rights, labor, innovation, and government use of AI.

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The order was rescinded on January 20, 2025. Any investment analysis must separate the opportunity it created while active from the current policy environment.

How could an AI-safety order help cloud companies?

The order’s commercial effect would have been indirect. It did not require agencies to buy AWS or Azure, and it did not award Amazon or Microsoft money. Instead, it encouraged activities that tend to require substantial computing infrastructure and specialized software.

1. More compute for testing and evaluation

Developers of certain powerful “dual-use foundation models” faced reporting and record-sharing requirements, including information about safety testing and red-team exercises. Model evaluation, repeated testing, data storage, and security analysis can all increase cloud usage.

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The order did not guarantee that this work would run on AWS or Azure. However, the largest cloud platforms already offered extensive compute capacity, storage, identity controls, logging, and enterprise support.

2. Demand for secure AI environments

Federal agencies and regulated businesses often need controlled environments with encryption, access management, monitoring, audit trails, data-residency controls, and restrictions on personnel or physical locations. These requirements can make mature cloud platforms more attractive than smaller or less-established providers.

That is a competitive advantage, not an automatic contract win. A cloud service’s authorization does not approve every application built on it, and agencies may still need their own Authority to Operate.

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3. Government AI procurement

The order sought to expand federal capacity to use AI responsibly. If agencies moved from experimentation to deployment, they could purchase cloud infrastructure, model access, cybersecurity, governance software, and implementation services.

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For investors, the key idea is that trusted AI rules could enlarge the market for cloud services even when the cloud provider does not own the leading model.

Why Amazon was well positioned

AWS’s federal infrastructure

AWS had an established federal-cloud business and specialized environments such as AWS GovCloud (US). AWS also maintains extensive FedRAMP information for government buyers and partners.

Amazon Bedrock received FedRAMP High authorization in AWS GovCloud in August 2024. Bedrock provides managed access to multiple foundation models, along with tools for model customization, agents, guardrails, knowledge bases, and evaluation.

This gave Amazon a potentially valuable position: AWS could earn revenue from the infrastructure and platform layer even when a customer selected a model developed by another company.

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Bedrock’s multi-model strategy

Government and enterprise buyers may not want to depend entirely on one model developer. Bedrock’s multi-model approach can let customers compare models or change models within a common AWS environment.

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That flexibility can reduce dependence on one model vendor, but it also limits AWS’s control over the underlying model economics and differentiation. Amazon must compete with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, direct model providers, and specialized AI infrastructure companies.

AWS later announced additional Bedrock model approvals for FedRAMP High and Department of Defense Impact Levels 4 and 5. Those later approvals are evidence of AWS’s continuing compliance-oriented positioning, not proof that Executive Order 14110 caused them. Authorization is also specific to the model, service, region, and workload. See AWS’s model authorization-status page.

Why Microsoft was well positioned

Azure’s broader enterprise ecosystem

Microsoft could sell more than cloud compute. Its potential opportunity included Azure infrastructure, Azure Government, Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft 365, identity, cybersecurity, data services, and business applications.

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Microsoft says that Azure and Azure Government maintain FedRAMP High provisional authorizations, although authorization scope is service-specific. Its FedRAMP documentation is therefore more useful than treating “Azure” as one blanket authorization.

In August 2024, Microsoft announced that Azure OpenAI Service, including GPT-4o, had been approved within Azure Government’s FedRAMP High authorization. The announcement also addressed Department of Defense Impact Levels 4 and 5. Availability still depends on the specific model, region, tenant, data classification, and agency requirements.

Microsoft’s U.S. government offering continues to market Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft 365 Copilot for Government Community Cloud, Azure Government, and related AI tools. These are signs of current positioning, not evidence that the rescinded order remains in force.

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The OpenAI relationship

Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI gave Azure an important strategic connection to a leading model provider. But Microsoft should not be described as exclusively controlling all OpenAI cloud activity. In a February 2026 statement, Microsoft and OpenAI said OpenAI’s first-party products remain hosted on Azure while also describing flexibility for OpenAI to use additional compute elsewhere. The partnership statement illustrates both the opportunity and the concentration risk.

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FedRAMP is important—but it is not an AI-safety certificate

FedRAMP standardizes security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products used by federal agencies. AWS describes it as a government-wide process connected to federal security requirements and NIST standards.

FedRAMP does not mean that an AI model is unbiased, accurate, safe for every use case, or appropriate for every mission. It addresses cloud security authorization. Separately, agencies and customers may need to evaluate model behavior, privacy, cybersecurity, data handling, reliability, and mission-specific risks.

For personal investors, this distinction matters. A press release announcing a government authorization may demonstrate product readiness and sales positioning, but it does not prove that a company won a major contract or generated material incremental revenue.

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What could the financial impact have been?

Without a specific contract or company filing, it is not responsible to assign a precise revenue figure to the order. The financial case is better understood through possible mechanisms.

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Potential upside Potential downside
More cloud consumption for model training, testing, and red-teaming Higher compliance, security, and documentation costs
Demand for managed model APIs and AI platforms Slower launches and longer procurement cycles
Spending on monitoring, governance, identity, and audit tools Customers delaying deployments while standards remain uncertain
More federal AI pilots and production systems Competition from Google, Oracle, Nvidia, model companies, and specialists
Greater platform lock-in after agencies build on a cloud ecosystem Benefits spread across providers rather than flowing mainly to AWS or Azure

The strongest formulation is that the order could have enlarged the market for trusted AI infrastructure while raising the cost of serving it.

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Could Amazon and Microsoft themselves have faced new obligations?

Yes, depending on their activities. The order’s reporting provisions primarily targeted developers of covered foundation models and entities within specifically defined categories. It would be inaccurate to say that the order automatically required Amazon and Microsoft to report all AI activity.

A company can occupy several roles at once: model developer, cloud infrastructure provider, model host, application vendor, and government contractor. The applicable obligations would depend on the model, computing threshold, service, and activity involved.

That creates a trade-off. Large providers may be better equipped to absorb compliance costs, but compliance can still consume engineering, legal, security, and operational resources.

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Investor framework: three possible outcomes

Bull case

Government and enterprise customers treat trustworthy AI controls as essential. They increase spending on cloud compute, model APIs, cybersecurity, monitoring, and governance. AWS and Azure use their compliance infrastructure to win deployments and then expand into adjacent software and services.

Base case

AI governance spending grows, but the benefits are distributed among several hyperscalers, model developers, chip companies, cybersecurity vendors, testing firms, and government systems integrators. The order supports demand but does not materially change the competitive ranking of the largest providers.

Bear case

Rules and standards slow deployment, customers postpone projects, compliance costs rise, or the policy is weakened or rescinded. In that scenario, the infrastructure opportunity is smaller than expected. That last possibility occurred with Executive Order 14110’s rescission in January 2025.

Important limitations for investors and buyers

  • No direct subsidy: The order did not hand Amazon or Microsoft money.
  • No mandatory provider: It did not make AWS or Azure required vendors.
  • No guaranteed causation: Later Bedrock and Azure OpenAI authorizations show compliance investment, not necessarily revenue caused by the order.
  • Government sales are slow: Procurement, security reviews, and agency approvals can take substantial time.
  • Authorization is narrow: Availability depends on the service, model, region, data, and impact level.
  • Competition remains intense: Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, cybersecurity companies, and AI-governance specialists could also benefit.

What the headline means today

Biden’s order was bullish for Amazon and Microsoft only in a qualified, indirect sense. It could have steered more AI spending toward providers with large-scale infrastructure, government relationships, security controls, managed model platforms, and established procurement channels.

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Amazon’s strongest case was AWS’s government infrastructure and Bedrock’s multi-model platform. Microsoft’s was Azure’s combination of government cloud, OpenAI access, identity, security, productivity software, and enterprise distribution.

But Executive Order 14110 is no longer operative. The lasting lesson is not that the order guaranteed gains for either company. It is that AI governance and government authorization can become commercial differentiators—and that investors should distinguish product readiness and policy positioning from provable incremental revenue.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

Written by TheFinanceBase Team

The Team behind TheFinanceBase.

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