Twitter has reportedly resumed paying its contract with Google Cloud, several weeks after seemingly ditching the cloud hosting giant to go its own way.
A report from Bloomberg claims the Elon Musk-backed social media firm has restarted payments ahead of a June 30 cut-off deadline that could have left Twitter in serious technical difficulties.
Twitter had apparently been looking at going its own way on hosting, potentially even creating its own in-house system, but the company now appears to have seen sense and patched things up with Google Cloud.
Twitter and Google Cloud make up
Bloomberg reports that the change comes from new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who apparently, “helped get the relationship back on track.”
Yaccarino’s involvement may even lead to a wider partnership between the two companies, with the report claiming Twitter is now negotiating a broader partnership that could include advertising and Google’s use of Twitter’s paid API.
Bloomberg claims that Twitter’s contract with Google Cloud started in 2018, and costs between $200 million and $300 million each year – making it a key target for Elon Musk’s wide-ranging cost-cutting that signaled the start of his ownership.
As we initially reported, while some of its hosting is managed in-house, Twitter also uses Google Cloud for tasks such as fighting spam and child sexual abuse material, meaning that any failure to pay its bills could result in catastrophically harmful events on the platform.
Twitter had also reportedly previously withheld payment from Google Cloud’s competitor, Amazon Web Services (AWS), with whom the company also shares hosting responsibilities, this time relating to advertising.
The company has faced a number of issues regarding bills in recent months as Musk’s tumultuous period as CEO came to an end.
Late last year, Twitter was sued by the California Property Trust for failing to pay rent on the building it leases for its headquarters.
More recently, the company was also told it would be evicted from its office in Boulder, Colorado for failing to pay its rent.
Having provided a letter of credit worth $968,000 in February 2020 under its pre-Musk regime, the company’s rent payments remained covered until March 2023, however payments since then have been non-existent.
The firm’s Boulder headquarters, at 3401 Bluff St, was home to around 300 employees at its height, but its landlord, Lot 2 SBO LLC, took the matter to court in May 2023, at which point it was ruled by the judge that the Sheriff would assist in the eviction by the end of July.
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