Microsoft posted strong results for its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, beating expectations and showing strong growth in its cloud computing platform and a boost in paid AI users.
The Redmond, Washington, company earned $90 billion, or $4.81 per share, in the April-June quarter. That is up 18% from the same period a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had expected the company to earn $4.24 per share on revenue of $87.62 billion this
quarter.
Microsoft Cloud revenue was $59.3 billion this quarter, up 27% year-over-year. That growth reflects the demand across Microsoft's cloud computing platform Azure, as well as its first-party AI applications and services. Azure and other cloud services revenue increased 43%.
For the full fiscal year, which closed out at the end of June, the company brought in $331.8 billion in revenue.
“This year, Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion for the first time, and Microsoft 365 Copilot reached over 30 million paid seats, reflecting the confidence customers are placing in us to power their AI transformation,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement Wednesday.
Investors had been looking for evidence that Azure and Copilot, Microsoft's flagship AI assistant, could eventually produce returns as concerns about high AI spending had steadily grown across the industry.
“We remain very confident in the long-term return on these investments, given these strong demand signals, the increasing product usage we’ve seen and the efficiencies that we’re driving across the platform,” said Danielle Criste, Microsoft's director of investor relations, in an interview.
Microsoft’s shares rose nearly 3% to $402.07 in after-hours trading after the results came out.
