Amazon Web Services’ Dave Levy departs for Google

Dave Levy, vice president of AWS Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services, left the company on July 31 for a role at Google, a key competitor. Levy, who joined AWS in 2017 after 12 years at Apple, led AWS's worldwide public sector business from 2023. David Appel, formerly head of AWS's national security and defense portfolio, has stepped in as acting vice president.

Amazon Web Services’ Dave Levy departs for Google The senior executive worked at AWS since 2017. Dave Levy, vice president of AWS Worldwide Public Sector, has left the cloud computing and AI giant for a role with one of its primary competitors: Google. Levy’s last day was Friday, July 31, an AWS spokesperson confirmed to Nextgov/FCW . A Google spokesperson declined to comment on Levy’s hiring. Levy joined AWS in 2017 after a 12-year run as Apple’s head of U.S. government sales — first as vice president of U.S. government, nonprofit and healthcare, and ultimately leading AWS’ worldwide public sector business from 2023 onward. David Appel, who formerly oversaw AWS’ national security and defense portfolio, has stepped into Levy’s former role in acting capacity, according to an AWS spokesperson. Levy’s departure from AWS comes as the company nears the 15th anniversary of its GovCloud https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/ , which debuted in 2011 as the first cloud infrastructure accredited and designed for government customers. In the years since, AWS inked a series of major defense customers to multibillion-dollar cloud contracts, including the Central Intelligence Agency, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/ the Pentagon https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2022/12/amazon-google-microsoft-oracle-awarded-9b-pentagon-cloud-contract/380596/ , the National Security Agency https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2022/04/nsa-re-awards-secret-10-billion-contract-amazon/366184/ and all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies https://www.nextgov.com/modernization/2020/11/exclusive-cia-awards-secret-multibillion-dollar-cloud-contract/170227/ . A first-mover in the cloud computing market — Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute, or EC2, debuted 20 years ago — AWS remains https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2026/cloud-market-share-q2-2026-google-gains-share-as-aws-falls the dominant market leader in the worldwide cloud computing market with nearly 28% of global market share. Google’s business continues to grow, too. Google Cloud, the company’s suite of cloud computing services, is steadily gaining https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/2026/cloud-market-share-q1-2026-aws-microsoft-google-battling-in-ai-era market share from competitors AWS and Microsoft, while the company’s AI technology, including its Gemini models, is fueling further growth as private and public sector customers clamor for AI offerings. After a public falling out with the Pentagon in 2017 over Project Maven https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/1254719/project-maven-to-deploy-computer-algorithms-to-war-zone-by-years-end/ , Google launched a business unit in 2022 called Google Public Sector specifically designed to deliver cloud computing, AI and collaboration tools popular with its private sector customers directly to the public sector and Pentagon. Helmed https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2022/09/googles-government-arm-names-new-chief/377503/ by Google Public Sector Chief Executive Officer Karen Dahut, the bullish maneuver has paid off with Google’s software running in nearly every major federal agency, its latest Gemini models powering https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2026/04/pentagon-adds-googles-latest-model-genaimil-usage-soars/413126/ the Pentagon’s GenAI.mil platform and poaching away some longtime https://www.nextgov.com/modernization/2025/12/inside-transportation-departments-technology-transformation/410400/ Microsoft 365 customers through its Workspace collaboration suite.