Storage has become a critical component of enterprise AI workflows as organizations increasingly deploy AI models and inference at scale. To speed deployment and simplify access, many enterprises are shifting storage workloads to the cloud, opening the door for a growing group of specialized cloud storage providers to challenge the hyperscalers.

These providers offer S3-compatible object storage for structured and unstructured data, allowing integration with services from AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle while competing directly on cost. By significantly undercutting hyperscaler pricing—and often eliminating data egress fees—companies such as Wasabi and Backblaze are attracting customers building data-intensive AI applications.