Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian praised the cloud provider's near total eclipse of the market during his keynote address at the Next event, citing at least 80% penetration of the top ten players in every industry.

"Our vision for cloud computing is to simplify all of the technology that organizations need, making it accessible by simplification to every organization around the world as software platforms that provide the foundation for your business to digitize and accelerate," Kurian said.

Kurian and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who tuned in virtually to address the crowd gathered in New York, touted Google Cloud's customers with household names like DoorDash, Home Depot, Allstate, H&M, and Johns Hopkins.

"As you can see, Google Cloud is accelerating the transformation of global leaders in every industry," Kurian said, adding that 70% of the top 100 technology unicorns run on Google Cloud.

Ford CEO Jim Farley took the stage next, and while he admitted to spouting a bit of "corporate speak," he praised the cloud provider's role in differentiating the automotive giant by enabling the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and data.

"The real revolution in auto is digital, and Ford intends to lead that revolution," Farley said. "We're turning our vehicles into generators of data that will receive continuous updates. We can ship software directly to the car, delivering incredible value," he explained.

In the future, Farley expects that Google Cloud will help Ford's vehicles perform preventable diagnoses themselves. "For service, we're investing in a whole new generation of talent – coders, software engineers from so many tech companies who want to join Ford," and while "some of those are coming from Google," he described the cloud provider as "a fundamental change agent" for its help in accelerating Ford's use of AI and ML to drive innovation.

"This is a really big deal for us at Ford, and for me," Farley said.