Microsoft reported $90 billion in revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter on Wednesday, an 18% increase from a year earlier, as rapid growth in cloud computing and artificial intelligence services lifted results above Wall Street forecasts. The company posted net income of $35.8 billion, or $4.81 per share, for the April-to-June period, according to Microsoft and reports from AP News and Axios.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected revenue of about $87.62 billion and earnings of $4.24 per share. The stronger figures give investors fresh evidence that demand for enterprise cloud and AI products is translating into sales, even as the cost of the infrastructure needed to operate those services rises sharply.
Microsoft Cloud revenue reached $59.3 billion during the quarter, up 27% year over year. Revenue from Azure and other cloud services increased 43%, while Azure revenue exceeded $100 billion for the full fiscal year for the first time. Microsoft also said its Microsoft 365 Copilot workplace AI service had passed 30 million paid seats.
The Redmond, Washington-based company generated $331.8 billion in total revenue for the fiscal year that ended in June. El País reported annual net profit of $133.75 billion, 31% higher than in the prior year. Chief Executive Satya Nadella attributed the performance to customers using Microsoft's platforms for their AI transformation, a company assessment rather than an independently measured conclusion.
Growth came with a large expansion in spending. Axios reported that quarterly capital expenditure jumped 70% to $41 billion as Microsoft added data-center and computing capacity for cloud and AI demand. The scale of that investment remains central to the business outlook because higher revenue must eventually justify the cost of chips, servers, energy and new facilities.
The results place Microsoft among the clearest current tests of whether the global AI investment boom can produce durable commercial returns. Management expects continued growth in the current quarter and fiscal year, although pressure in the personal-computer market may partly offset business-cloud gains. Investors will now focus on Azure growth, Copilot adoption and margins to judge whether demand can keep pace with the company's expanding infrastructure budget.
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