Federal Cloud/Data-Hosting Contracts Climb 20% QoQ, Led by IBM
Summary
Governmentwide contracts under NAICS 518210 (data processing, hosting and related services) reached $1.04 billion in FY2026 Q3 (Apr-Jun 2026) -- up 20.4% from $863.5M the prior quarter and 13.0% year-over-year. The VA and Defense together bought 45.9% ($477.1M), and IBM is the single largest vendor at $132.0M (12.7%), ahead of GovCIO, AWS and Microsoft.
NAICS 518210 covers cloud computing, data processing and web hosting -- the plumbing agencies rent rather than build. The figures come from USAspending.gov, the Treasury system of record, filtered to that code and the four contract action types.
The buying is concentrated. The Department of Veterans Affairs ($247.7M) and the Department of Defense ($229.4M) alone account for 45.9% of the quarter -- $477.1M combined. Every other agency together makes up the remaining $562.5M.
View data as table
| Veterans Affairs | 247.7 | 23.8% of the quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Defense | 229.4 | 22.1% of the quarter |
| All other agencies | 562.5 | every other buyer combined |
On the vendor side, IBM leads at $132.0M -- 12.7% of the quarter, more than any single agency-preferred hyperscaler. Federal integrator GovCIO is second ($95.4M), then Amazon Web Services ($91.7M); Microsoft trails at about $39.8M.
View data as table
| IBM | 132 | 12.7% of the quarter |
|---|---|---|
| GovCIO | 95.4 | |
| Amazon Web Services | 91.7 | |
| Microsoft | 39.8 | reported rounded |
The trend is the story: hosting obligations sat near $920M a year earlier and dipped to $864M the prior quarter before climbing to $1.04B. The winter-to-spring jump lands as agencies push cloud and data workloads onto contract.
View data as table
| FY25 Q3 | 920.3 | a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| FY26 Q2 | 863.6 | prior quarter |
| FY26 Q3 | 1,039.5 | Apr-Jun 2026 |
- Governmentwide data-processing/hosting contract obligations (NAICS 518210) reached $1.04B in FY2026 Q3 (Apr-Jun 2026) -- up 20.4% quarter-over-quarter and 13.0% year-over-year.
- The ($247.7M) and Defense ($229.4M) buy 45.9% of it ($477.1M combined); every other agency splits the remaining $562.5M.
- IBM is the single largest vendor at $132.0M (12.7%), ahead of GovCIO ($95.4M), AWS ($91.7M) and Microsoft (~$39.8M).
- USAspending figures for a closed quarter can edge up as agencies certify late actions, but FY2026 Q3 is past its normal 90-day lag; every figure is recomputable from the API queries in the sources.
Obligations cover contract award types A/B/C/D ( calls, purchase orders, delivery orders, definitive contracts) by action date, summed at the transaction level and filtered to NAICS 518210. Every figure is recomputable from the exact USAspending POST bodies recorded in the sources; each query fixes spending_level explicitly because the endpoint defaults shifted during the pull. Microsoft's ~$39.8M is the rounded value returned in this pull. Vendors and agencies are named; no private individual is named. This is a held draft prepared for editor review.
Sources(3) ▾
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending Over Time (NAICS 518210 contract obligations, by fiscal quarter) (2026-08-14) — Governmentwide federal contract obligations under NAICS 518210 (data processing, hosting and related services) grouped by fiscal quarter. Recomputable POST query (issuer-hosted API): {"group":"quarter","spending_level":"transactions","filters":{"naics_codes":{"require":["518210"]},"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2024-10-01","end_date":"2026-06-30","date_type":"action_date"}]}}. spending_level MUST be set to "transactions" to sum obligation amounts by action date; the endpoint's default spending_level shifted to subawards during the pull window and returns a partial total if omitted. Award type codes A/B/C/D are the four contract action types ( call, purchase order, delivery order, definitive contract). Establishes the FY2026 Q3 total of $1,039,543,077.19 (Apr-Jun 2026), the FY2026 Q2 total of $863,546,280.00, and the FY2025 Q3 total of $920,273,458.77 -- each independently equal to the sum of all agencies in the awarding_agency breakdown for the same window. A live POST-only API; a static GET/Wayback capture is not meaningful, so the exact request body is recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending by Recipient (NAICS 518210 contract obligations, FY2026 Q3) (2026-08-14) — Contract obligations for the FY2026 Q3 window (NAICS 518210) broken out by recipient. Recomputable POST query: {"category":"recipient","spending_level":"transactions","filters":{"naics_codes":{"require":["518210"]},"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-04-01","end_date":"2026-06-30","date_type":"action_date"}]},"limit":10}. Establishes the leading vendors: International Business Machines Corporation $131,980,529.80; GovCIO $95,363,725.15; Amazon Web Services $91,734,999.25. Microsoft appears further down the list at approximately $39.8 million (reported rounded in this pull). All named recipients are companies, not individuals. A live POST-only API; exact body recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending by Awarding Agency (NAICS 518210 contract obligations, FY2026 Q3) (2026-08-14) — Contract obligations for the FY2026 Q3 window (NAICS 518210) broken out by awarding agency. Recomputable POST query: {"category":"awarding_agency","spending_level":"transactions","filters":{"naics_codes":{"require":["518210"]},"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-04-01","end_date":"2026-06-30","date_type":"action_date"}]},"limit":10}. Establishes the two leading buyers: Department of Veterans Affairs $247,689,141.18 and Department of Defense $229,387,910.66. Summing all agencies returned at limit 100 equals $1,039,543,077.19, the governmentwide Q3 total. A live POST-only API; exact body recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
Comments
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Federal agencies obligated $1.04 billion in data-processing and hosting contracts (NAICS 518210) in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (April-June 2026) -- 20.4% more than the $863.5M obligated the quarter before, and 13.0% more than the same quarter a year earlier.