The big picture: Apple continues to increase its reliance on Amazon Web Services (AWS), a trend that appears likely to continue for the foreseeable future... at least, until Apple can get its own infrastructure in place. Expect that to take years, however.

Sources familiar with the matter told CNBC that Apple's spending at the end of March was on track to average in excess of $30 million per month during the first quarter. That's over 10 percent more than it spent in the year-ago quarter. Should spending remain unchanged for the remainder of 2019, annual spending on AWS would check in at around $360 million.

Those familiar with the matter also said Apple in recent months signed an agreement to spend at least $1.5 billion on AWS over the next five years.

One has to think that Apple's spending on AWS won't continue indefinitely as the company traditionally doesn't like to put all of its eggs in one basket.

In December, Apple announced plans to invest $10 billion to build data centers in the US over the next five years including $4.5 billion through the end of 2019 alone. The company is also spending $1 billion to expand its footprint in Austin.

Apple has used AWS for iCloud storage in the past but has not publicly said if any of its other services also use AWS or other cloud providers.

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