Pre-market trading on Thursday saw a 10% increase in Microsoft shares as the tech giant reported higher-than-expected revenue and faster growth at its Azure cloud division, providing new proof that its massive investment in AI is paying off.
In the July-September quarter, the company anticipates revenue of between $89.85 billion (€78.5 billion) and $90.95 billion (€79.5 billion), indicating growth of 16% to 17%. Additionally, it predicted that Azure revenue would increase by roughly 45% in constant currency, up from 43% in the most recent quarter.
The positive prognosis came after fiscal fourth-quarter results that exceeded expectations. In the April–June period, revenue increased 18% year over year to $90 billion (€78.7 billion), exceeding the $87.6 billion (€76.6 billion) predicted by FactSet’s survey of analysts.
Despite a $3.2 billion (€2.8 billion) unrealized gain on Microsoft’s investment in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, net profit increased 31% to a record $35.8 billion (€31.3 billion). Diluted profits per share exceeded analysts’ expectations of $4.24 (€3.71) to reach $4.81 (€4.20).Despite adding more computing infrastructure throughout the quarter, Microsoft said that demand for Azure remained higher than available capacity.
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